Early Spring Garden - Springing to Life

Lemon thyme, Oregano, Garlic chives, and Strawberry Blossoms

It is time for our early spring garden clean up where we start to tidy up the beds in anticipation of a new growing season. Mr. B and I spent a few hours in the garden trimming, weeding, raking, and enjoying the sights and smells of early spring.


Our front yard habitat is full of insects and flowers. The first of the season's yarrow is blossoming and the plants look super healthy. We weren't sure these would over-winter but they did beautifully...may add some more to fill in the spaces.




Hello little creature! These insects (some sort of beetle?) are showing their faces now that the rocks are warming up.



I love this image with my lavender and the bee! It seems like you are peering down into a whole different world. The lavender is alive with bees with their humming and buzzing. Go bees!



I know most of you real gardeners will shudder when I tell you that I keep part of my yard just for the dandelions. I love these happy yellow flowers and the bees agree with me too!



The bee balm is springing to life in the side yard and we pruned the neighboring bushes back to allow some more sunlight. I look forward to seeing the red blooms of this flower in the summer.



This is actually my neighbor's flowering quince that is blooming. I am sharing it here because it has inspired me to plant a few of these in our yard for next spring's color. Aren't they gorgeous? I am actually wavering between this bush and the redbud....haven't totally made up my mind yet.

So there is a little garden update from a sunny afternoon's walk in the garden.

It is not too late to print and complete the First Day of Spring printable or complete the Spring Splendor Walk challenge. Join us!



Jami's Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Nature Study on an Ordinary Day - Autumn

Sometimes it is nice to head out the door and see what comes your way, no assignments. My neighborhood is rather ordinary - no parks, very little sidewalk, lots of empty lots with weeds/wildflowers, and a busy street. I take my lovable Labrador for a walk every morning and in the late afternoon, sometimes with my camera and sometimes without. We head down our side street, around the corner and onto the sidewalk to walk alongside two open lots. Right now if you don't stop to look closely you would think there wasn't much there to be interested in. But wait! Don't judge too soon because you might miss a few interesting things.


Queen Anne's Lace....in bloom....in November! Can you believe that? This is the latest I have ever seen with fresh blossoms in our neighborhood. I would have missed that if I did not slow down to look closely.


My neighbor has a fresh crop of chickory blooming as well and it is surprising to see it as late as this.


Now if my boys were younger we would take time to investigate this sign. Where does the water from our gutter go? The river is really far away and the creek is more of a trickle...is that where this water goes to? We will have to wait until the rains come again and try to figure it out. The gutter and sewer drain were put in last summer so this is something new to our neighborhood.



We have been on the look out for thistles and the lot has a whole field of star thistle. I was hoping to spot a purple thistle but no luck here in the neighborhood. We do know a spot along our walking trail that had thistles so we will need to hope over there one day this week to check it out. (Thistles will be this Friday's Outdoor Hour Challenge.)


I love a good mystery and this flower is a mystery! There is a little patch of these growing on the hillside around the bend from the end of the sidewalk. Kona went four wheeling off the path and I stumbled onto these beauties. I really need to look them up in our field guide. See? It isn't such an ordinary walk after all!

Heading back home I slipped the camera back into my pocket and we just enjoyed the sunshine and the time outdoors together.

Rounding the corner and into our drive, I smile at our front yard. Yes, it makes me smile every time I see it.


If you have been reading my blog for the last year you know we pulled up our grass in the Summer of 2010 and added drought resistant plants for a whole new look. Here is what our yard looks like today.


The star performers right now are the sage, the purple fountain grass, and the dogwood. Color! I love the feel and movement in this yard now that the grass is gone and the birds, butterflies, and bees have all moved in.

From ordinary to extraordinary in fifteen minutes! I challenge you to find something interesting on your next neighborhood walk. Comment and let me know what it is once you find it!

Creating a Bee Habitat Garden - Suggestions and Ideas

We are starting to build our new garden area to replace a huge portion of our backyard lawn area. It has been a dream of mine to take the water-hungry lawn out and replace it with color and attractive plants for birds, bees, and butterflies. My husband and I finally agreed on a plan and we started a week or so ago to build the first two garden boxes from recycled blocks that came out of our frontyard remodel last fall. We are on a limited budget for this project so we are reusing materials we have on hand and it is going to be a long range plan to add more as we have time and money. We did end up purchasing and hauling in a yard of garden soil that we added some of our homemade compost to so we could fill up our boxes. We didn't use the complete yard of soil in the boxes but used the balance to top off our vegetable garden boxes and fill two pots for patio tomatoes.


Here is the first square which will anchor the whole project. We found some lavender on sale at Home Depot and we added four plants.....bees no extra charge. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that there are bees on these blossoms every day, at all times of the day.



We also have loads of bees in the dandelions over on the other end of the yard. I counted quite a number of bees in the yellow blossoms as I sat and enjoyed their cheerfulness one afternoon. My husband is not convinced to keep the dandelions and wants to pull them up. I asked him to wait a bit and then he can mow them over.

Mr. B is my garden helper these days and we enjoy spending time outdoors together.

The larger box is going to hold my sunflowers and zinnias. I am including the Lemon Sunflowers in this box as part of the Great Sunflower Project. I was reading on their website about their change this year and they have added quite a number of other flowers to the project so you can count bees in your area.

If you want to check it out, click over and read on their website but it looks like you can count bees on include Bee balm, Cosmos, Rosemary, Tickseed, and Purple coneflower.

The two brown piles of leaf compost that you can see in the image above are going to become part of another bee garden that we may get to this year. The link will take you to Renee's Garden where she has collaborated with the Great Sunflower Project on a list of bee attractive plants for your garden.

The only other part we are planning on planting this spring is the Three Sisters Garden that will be a long row parallel to the sidewalk just behind where my son is working in the image above. The Three Sisters are pumpkins, corn, and beans that you plant as companions. I am excited just thinking about this part of the garden!!!


I am anxious to add in a few things as we have time and the weather warms up. My husband keeps telling me he doesn't see my vision for the yard but I told him to have faith and see what evolves. At the bottom of the post are the seeds that I am planting in the new larger box if you are interested.

That is what we accomplished this week in our new garden project but here are a few of our on-going bee/butterfly/hummingbird habitat garden projects that are a work in progress.


We have been working on this section of the garden for a few years now and it is filling in and growing more beautiful with each passing season. If you click the photo and go over to Flickr I have made notes of what each plant is in the image.


In our front yard we added some Moonshine Yarrow....this has become another favorite of the bees this spring. I am anxious to see how it grows over the summer since it says it needs very little water.



I have to share my new yard art piece that my dear husband found for me. It is a metal butterfly balanced on top of a pole with river rocks stacked. It is the perfect piece for our front yard. I love the way it moves in the slightest breeze and is a great addition to the look of the front yard. I decided it is all about movement...the grasses, the forsythia, the butterfly bushes, and now the sculpture.


It looks like you can purchase it on Amazon.com! This is a much better price than my dear husband paid at our local garden shop. I may just have to buy one for a friend of mine who loves this sort of sculpture and would appreciate it too.

I have enjoyed reading all the entries over on Jami's blog An Oregon Cottage as part of her Tuesday Garden Party. Welcome to all who have clicked over to read my entry!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom
I welcome all readers to subscribe to my blog...see the sidebar for a place to enter your email.



Jami's Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!