April showers

 So nice to have a nice, gentle rain April 24. We'll take all the moisture we can get at this point.

 The flower pots are already filling in nicely. I'm especially loving the colorful, cheery zinnias this year.

Planting a Japanese Maple

While the redbud we planted last year bloomed beautifully April 21, we planted a Japanese maple behind the Japanese magnolia in the front entry garden. We had thought to move the magnolia to a spot where it wouldn't hide the rest of the entry garden, but decided to wait one more year and see where we are at that time.

  

We are hoping the Japanese maple will be well enough protected from wind and heat and freezing weather in this little alcove to thrive.

Moving roses

Moved six rosebushes tonight, April 16. It probably would have been best to do this a couple of weeks ago, but we had to get other things finished first. We moved two about this time last year and thought we'd lost them, but they are doing great this year and bushing out at the corner of the deck. The sandstone rocks between the rosebushes are from Ken's grandparents' pastureland in the Smoky Hills of Kansas. We moved some of them from our last house and I love having them in this yard too.