Walking the Garden
April 2024
Although we get a few early spring bulbs in March, generally April is a better month for colour in the garden.
The giant Crown Imperial Frittilarias in the front garden usually appears first. This year, the first one was this light greenish-yellow one.
The Grape hyacinths are few and far between in our garden, but I hope they will spread and produce a better show in years to come. The bigger pink and white hyacinths were rescued from indoor bulbs I got the previous year and planted outside as soon as the soil was warm enough. Planted outdoors, they will become more leggy and sparse as time passes.
The Aubretia looked stunning in the pot, but collapsed and kind of fell apart when I put it in the garden. The red Primula was an impulse buy in February to brighten up the kitchen window. It is supposed to reflower in the mid-summer. I couldn’t resist it.
The small Serviceberry tree in the front garden went into overbloom this spring. It was gorgeous.
The Lamium is one of the first and last perennials to produce flowers. I have it planted in almost all the beds. In the above photo, it is growing among the Bloodroots, which are about to flower.
For the front bed beside the driveway, I decided to splurge and get some new tulips in the fall of 2023. These lovely red ones survived squirrels and a bad winter and surprised me in late April.
The humble low-grow Bugleweed attracts bees and produces a lovely show of blue in April. It does tend to get a bit invasive but has shallow roots and transplants nicely.
The Catmint, seen in the center photo, is a fave of the American Goldfinch. They are in it from early spring until late fall.
Last but not least is the beautiful Kanzan Japanese Cherry tree in the back garden, right outside my office window.
And those were a few highlights from April 2024.
