The Incredible Lushness of Spring

The lushness of my back yard is astonishing. In a mere week or so it went from popping up, to saturated. The greenness of it is delicious.



This is the little pond I created nearly ten years ago. Spring is an unpleasant time to deal with it because it is under the canopy of the neighbor's huge silver maple, so it fills up with leaves, sticks, etcetera, which conspire to clog the pump. There is nothing for it except to drain it (pump it out) and muck it out. This year I let it go a couple of weeks longer than I should have, and there were thousands of mosquito larvae in it. Blech! Rather than pumping it into the garden as I normally do (nutrient rich water!), this time I pumped it to the street gutter and figured the larvae would be killed as the water dissipated. Now it is filled with clean water and the pump is running to keep it aerated. Next step is to buy a fish and let it keep the insects down. Nothing as fancy as a koi or even a goldfish though. Likely just a minnow from a bait shop. By fall the crows will get it!

I share this one simply because I love the array of textures as well as the colors. That bleeding heart is going to have to fight it out with the Regal Blue hosta one day soon.



The bleeding hearts are done blooming. Now the bearded iris are in full bloom, and the Japanese iris are a few days from full bloom. There is one open to lead the charge.