The view from my kitchen window

May is coming to a close. We've had some nice rain and cooler weather and things are blooming like crazy. It's enough to make a person want to stand at the sink and do dishes all day! (Well, maybe not the dishes part, but what a view!)

A promise: Genesis 9:13-15

This was the view in our backyard at 6:25 this morning, May 25. Breathtaking! (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Good news...bad news...

The good news: it's May 24 and the yellow roses are blooming and beautiful. The bad news: the pink roses seem to be kaput. We think maybe the Carefree Delights have crowded them out. And in fact, the wild roses we love so much are actually climbing the arbor, so we didn't even notice for a while that the pink "real" roses were not coming back. (What's ironic is that the yellow rose bush was given to us free from the garden center because they thought it was dead. We paid good money for the pink one. There's surely a life lesson in there somewhere.)

Honeysuckle

The honeysuckle we planted in a corner of the garden has filled the fence on both sides. It is in full bloom now and its sweet scent fills the air!

What I'm missing

I'm away at a conference this week and really missing our bagel breakfasts out on the porch. Missing a lot of flowers blooming, too. (Though it's beautiful in North Carolina where I am, too.)

Pretty in pink

It rained all day yesterday, and today everything is lush and beautiful. The pinks are the prettiest thing in the garden right now. I love this pot of cosmos, and several varieties of dianthus mingle in the arbor garden.

Blooms are bustin'' out all over

It has been the most beautiful week in the garden! Perfect weather and everything is bursting into bloom. The Carefree Delight roses are 3 or 4 years old now, and provide color and a great backdrop for everything else. Have to be pruned like crazy, but they're worth it. The broken blue pot holds Neon Star Dianthus. They're hiding under the Dappled Willow bush in the arbor garden, but it's fun to come upon them peeking out when we take our morning and evening strolls through the yard.

Rearranging furniture

We've been taking our coffee and cinnamon tea to the east-facing front porch for coffeebreaks these last few beautiful mornings and decided on a whim to move the bistro set from the back deck to the front porch so we'd have a table for our bagels and mugs. That means the front porch bench got moved to the back deck, and I think it will be a lovely place to sit to catch an evening sunset or early morning breeze.

UPDATE: Here's the front porch...after the bagels and coffee are gone.

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.

Cleaning up

Three days after the first day of spring, and a beautiful day to work in the yard. We got about half of the grasses in the backyard cut down...can't wait to see all the new grass come up!


Before......and after.

One month from today. . .

With spring just a month away, we wanted to share some favorite shots from seasons past.

The magic of snow and sun

January 29 and the creator of the garden captured the work of the Creator with his camera. It was the prettiest winter morning I can ever remember.

Frosty, foggy morning

After a week of bitter cold, sub-zero temperatures, it's a balmy 21 degrees this morning, heading toward a high of 50 degrees tomorrow, January 13. When we got up this morning, it was foggy and the moisture had formed hoarfrost over everything. Beautiful!

Merry Christmas!

Our garden has been put to bed for the winter, but we still enjoy the glimpses we see from our windows, and on this shortest day of the year, we dream of the day next spring when things will start coming back to life in the garden! Meanwhile, we want to wish you all a very merry and blessed Christmas!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

December 8, and we're getting our first real snow of the season! Isn't the red twig dogwood beautiful against the white?
Fortunately, all the birds have flown south for the winter.

This moisture is so great for the trees and grasses. Love snow...as long as we're watching it from inside a warm, cozy house with the fireplace blazing.