The hills are alive!

Rock Garden Hill is a crayon box of color right now. Besides the columbine, the speedwell is a blanket of periwinkle, and the various sedums add shades of green and red, pink and yellow. They play off the rocks from the Smoky Hills so beautifully.

Flowerpots

We are gardening on a budget this year, but friends gave me early birthday presents – garden center gift certificates – just in time for the flat sales! So now all our pots are filled and the deck looks colorful and inviting. Thank you, dear friends!

Shopping at the compost heap

Our "compost" heap behind the shed is where we toss all the pulled weeds, old dirt and mulch, raked grass and leaves. Surprisingly, it has turned into a place where we can go "shopping" for pot filler. The Sedum varieties and the Speedwell in these two pot sprang up from what we raked from the rock garden last spring and tossed on the heap.

Kansas columbine

We didn't realize we could have such great success with columbine in Kansas, but the plant has done very well among our transplanted Smoky Hill rocks and boulder. Maybe we tricked it into thinking it was in Colorado? The bunches on either side of the boulder are in full bloom April 20; other plants in the rock garden are very close.

Prairie fire

April 11, and again this year they are doing a controlled burn of the meadow behind the homes across the street from us. It's always startling to glance out my kitchen window and see fire! Tonight it made an especially beautiful contrast with the Bradford pears in full bloom and everything springy and green, and flames licking the meadow floor.

Seasons of prairie grasses

Some shots of the back fence line through the seasons:

Late March - April
May - early June
July - early August
September - October

Spring blossoms

April 6, and the first blossoms of spring are popping out in earnest. Almost overnight, the forsythia is in full bloom and the Bonfire Dwarf Peach tree has sprouted "bottlebrush" blooms. Left and below, what the tree will look like in September, barring an April frost.