Garden Update – May 6th 2018 – Spring Has Sprung

Can you believe two weeks has come and gone?! Spring has officially sprung here in North Iowa!

An Update

Two weeks has passed since our first update of the season and yes, Spring has officially sprung in North Iowa!  Thankfully we haven’t received any snow since April 18th!  However, we have had our share of rain and that has caused us to not be able to get our vegetable garden planted!  (It is in a very low spot).  When it’s nice out T is in the field with his farmers, so ours has to wait…and when he’s not busy, it’s too wet!  It’s a vicious circle that we hope breaks up soon!  Until then, we have cucumbers and melons growing in our basement under a grow-light and a grape tomato plant in a pot on the deck!  I’m excited to have such easy access to my grape tomatoes this summer!

The rain, while dampening our vegetable garden, has helped my flower beds immensely!  My perennial beds are looking great (for the most part)!  If you’re new to my garden updates, you’ll hear me refer to the beds by different names!  This year, I’ll be adding the names to the pictures of the not obvious ones to help you out!

Perennials

I have three different perennial flower beds that you’ll hear me talk about: The North Bed, the Lily Bed, and the Wild Bed!

The North Bed is looking pretty good with the exception of my Tickseed and Firewitch.  They still look incredibly dead.  (I’m still waiting to hear back from my flower specialist if they are dead-dead or might still come out of it!)  This bed contains a flowering bush, some Iris’, phlox, the two previously mentioned, and a Cushion Spurge!

The Lily Bed is looking amazing!  And while I try to not play favorites with my flowers, I have to admit that the lilies are my favorite!  I’ve also added a new big lily and some border lilies, so I can’t wait to see what it all looks like when it comes together! (and yes, there are a few tulips in there that are putting buds on!)

The Wild Bed is our other perennial garden!  This one is unmanicured and unkept!  Most of flowers were there when we purchased our home, but we’ve added a few bulbs over the years to have something bloom in the spring and bloom, my Tulips are!

Annual Flowers

Notice I didn’t use the term, flower beds?!  That’s becuase all of my annual flowers are in raised planters, pots, or window boxes!

We have two raised beds around our flag pole and I’m excited to see these grow this year!  (I’ll be back in two weeks with names of each flower in the beds!)  These planters are what greet visitors at our house and I always want them to look bright and cheerful and welcoming!

 

Near my raised beds are also a fun cement bear planter/pot.  This pot has been in my family my entire life and I just can’t let go of it regardless of how sad it looks!  Mr. Bear gets one plant per year!

I am so lucky to have two window boxes on the front of my house!  They are along the sidewalk to my front door and under my kitchen windows!

Finally, I have a boot pot that I won from a North Iowa Blogger adventure at Natural Plus Nursery, three years ago now!  He also gets one plant per year!

Well, for today that’s it!  That’s the update!  I see progress, I see growth, and I see blooms!  I also see the plants that didn’t do so well this winter (the ones I’m still wondering if they’ll come out of their winter slumber).  It’s amazing how much life is like gardening.  Some days we thrive and grow and bloom…other days we need extra time to come out of whatever dark spot we are living in!  But, every day is a new day and a new chance, just like Spring is new each year and the opportunity for a new garden!

I hope you enjoy my garden updates this year and please feel free to tell me about your gardens! I love swapping stories, tips, tricks, and pictures! See you again in two weeks!