Syrphid fly?

Here’s some more flowers the bees are visiting. Not to mention another example of why the violets get free rein in my yard: they look nice next to the azaleas. Yesterday I thought I saw a bumblebee, but its buzz had that whiny fly quality. Probably a syrphid fly; they look a lot like bees […]

Native flowers for native bees

Today, this mystery shrub has been entertaining a varied host of bees and wasps. Some were so small, I could barely see them. Some looked like half-size honeybees with long eyelash-like antennae. The biggest was a middling bumblebee. There was also some sort of red bug, though definitely not a ladybug. All of them were […]

War on Weeds

Some weeds native plants I can tolerate. Like these violets. They can be a nice groundcover in the shady spots. But…

Promising Greenery

I feel like such a wuss. A couple weeks of nice weather and suddenly 55 degrees feels cold again. The plants don’t mind. There’s bleeding heart coming up, even though I moved them. There’s tulips holding their colors in reserve. There’s hosta, too.

Why you should leave leaf litter on the ground

The flowers look amazing right now, but the really amazing awakening is what you hear at night.

Is it really only April?

It’s been really hard to restrain myself from telling you about the garden this week. I planted raspberries and blueberries and lilies. The first tulips are flowering.

First fruits

Here’s the first batch of daffodils cut. They’re now on my desk, exuding so much soapy scent, I’m sneezing. And my fruit trees arrived!

Spring countdown

The garden countdown to real spring continues. There’s… …one, two, three–many daffodils… …two orchids… And…um

Is this Potable?

I have no idea why, when we were bringing this pot home, it looked like a good place to stash…

Starting to believe in spring

Spring is coming even inside the house. Like this orchid, for instance. No matter how I neglect it, every year it puts up a shoot of flowers. Meanwhile, there’s quite a bank of snowdrops developing outside.