Sunday, April 22, 2012

Earth day - April 21st check in


Despite drought conditions things are greening up quickly in part due to unseasonable warm temps. It seems we're about 2 weeks ahead of normal growth rates. Earlier in the week I received a number of shrubs that I'd ordered in the gloom of winter, and so - Surprise! - added/widened a few beds to make space. I also took some photos of the first bloom on the crabapple we put in last Spring. The crouter plum in the shot at right finished blooming last week.

The front yard photo includes expanded beds in the front and two new flowering pear trees - they put on a foot in the first year - I bought them on Mother's day last year - happy Mom's day to me!


Also, we took down two trees after the Halloween storm and now the front is even more sunny. Like Arizona sunny. Time to think about replacement options. The novelty of full full sun has fled.

On that note, I added a new shade bed on the side of the house and moved just about every valiant hosta that was in the front yard to it. Poor things gave it a go, but they weren't going to outlast the desert conditions of the border.

So the crabapple 'Profusion' is in the back - here's a closer shot. It's darker than I expected, but very pretty with a light fragrance.
Definitely need to mulch these beds, I think a call to Pepperell DPW is in order. Time to break out the wheelbarrows!

What 419 bulbs looks like





Not so impressive, right? Well, the proof is in the pricing I think. Referencing the post describing what I put in (http://growinginpepperell.blogspot.com/2011/11/419-bulbs.html) Not one of the narcissus came up, but the white tulips did very well, and the pink are pretty - see above close ups. I don't have a pic of the orangey red by the walk, because they were blooming and done before I could lay hands on a camera. I think they lasted a week. As for the 296 near the neighbor's drive - pbhht. They barely bloomed. I'm sticking with white flower farm in the future.
So I just need more, right? ha. To be fair, they got pretty scorched. It hasn't rained here in over a month, and we had been away on vacation, so no water for them. Phooey.

Local Nurseries I've used

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