Garden: Eventually, Spring WILL come...

Last night I was looking at pictures of my garden taken during the past year.  Did you know that we had snow on March 22nd of last year?  And very few signs of new growth until mid-to-late April (when the next batch of photos was taken)?  Even though I am growing weary of the cold and the rain and the perpetual overcast, I know that the full flush of spring is at least a couple of months away.  I wish I'd had this perspective last year when I was running around to every area nursery frantically looking for a couple of plants I NEEDED for my newly remodeled garden beds.  What craziness that was!  I was willing to drive all over and to pay top dollar for tiny little baby plants.  By the end of the season, those much-sought-after plants were available everywhere--and they were bigger and cheaper, too.  At least two of them aren't even living in my garden anymore after I decided to go in a different design direction.

So, although I AM pleased to note some early signs of spring--I am trying not to become unduly excited about it quite yet.

Early blooms on the neighbor's cherry.

But, there are some signs that spring is stirring.  First up are the blooms on my neighbor's ancient cherry tree.  It is one of the first trees in the neighborhood to break into bloom every year and it is full of bloom, actually.  I wonder how many years this tree has left--it has been completely defoliated every year for the last 4-5 years by some sort of pest or disease.  It leafs out again every time, but I think it must be close to exhausting whatever energy reserves it has available.  I have mixed feelings about this tree because I don't like the heavy rain of diseased leaves that it showers on my garden every year.  But I do appreciate the early spring blooms and the backdrop that it furnishes for my garden--you can see this tree in the background of nearly every picture that I take of my front yard.  I will miss it when it finally succumbs to old age or disease.  I am certainly enjoying it now.

Next up--the first seedlings are breaking ground!  This seedling, with its impossibly long and narrow leaves, is Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata) that I direct sowed last year.  One day, it will look like this:

Mature Sweet Cicely plant.  Photo from Wikimedia Commons (Source)

It's a good thing that my mom warned me that the primary leaves don't hint at the appearance of the finely divided leaves of the mature plant.  

I encouraged the self-seeding (last year) of several other plants--astrantias, Digitalis parviflora, Centranthus ruber (the white variety) and Ammi majus.  I don't know for sure what any of the seedlings look like, so I'll be keeping a close eye on whatever sprouts and weeding cautiously.

And finally, we have the crocus.  These are naturalized in several of the garden beds.  

Crocus.  And adjacent squirrel digging.  The squirrels
have been REALLY active during the last day or so. 

And there you have it--definite signs of approaching spring!