Spring has sprung.

Productive spring day today.

Did several loads of laundry.

Made up a gallon of hummingbird food and will clean the feeders and refill them tomorrow. Poor little birds were on their own last year.

Finished the wreath I made for my door.

Pulled weeds in my sweet pea bed. This year I planted sweet peas like I always do. Weeded the bed. Added a full bag of compost. Ordered four packets from Enchanting Sweet Peas. Soaked the seeds for 24 hours. Planted them in October.

And never saw one seedling. I had a busy fall and I think they must have germinated just when we had a heat wave with winds that fried them. I had also planted them in pony packs and, except for Norah Holman (my favorite) they all germinated and I was able to plant them in the bed earlier this spring. Today I was out there pulling weeds and look what I found!

There are actually two seedlings, both of the same variety. I was so tickled to see them.

I also found these.

I had no idea what they were so had to do an internet search. Turns out they are tiny nest-shaped mushrooms (one of the morels). Most of them are the size of a dime (none larger than a nickel) and the "eggs" in the nest are part of the mushroom. I think they are way cool!

In the front yard I moved this lilac. It's still in its pot from purchase last weekend.



If you've read my blog for a while you might remember the story of the courtyard wall.

The trumpet vine worked with the wind in 2007 to pull over the wall and it all had to be removed. We had it replaced with a wooden fence. It's not a bad fence, but we know we can't plant a vine on it again and, well, it's pretty stark. I'm sorely tempted to paint "Fort Miller" on it. I'm desperate to soften the look of it, so bought the lilac as a start.

I got it at Armstrong Nursery and it's one of the varieties that is supposed to do well in Southern California. I thought it would fare well in front of the fence because it's an eastern exposure; by the hottest part of the summer days it would be shaded by the fence. What I didn't consider (and was reminded of after the plant was knocked over twice by east winds) was that it might not tolerate a Santa Ana wind event. So, I moved it into the courtyard until I figure out where I want it. Maybe in the fairy garden.

I've been working for a few weeks on redesigning our front flower beds. I'm laying rubber bed liner to create flower space in the front of the beds but wood chips space under the rose bushes. In January, the idiot gardeners my husband hired to mow the lawn (and that's ALL) to0k it upon themselves to "prune" my roses. I never prune my roses; I just shape them as I cut flowers, and so I have flowers all year long. These morons came through with an electric hedge trimmer and whacked off the tops of all the bushes. I had to go through and try to repair the damage. So far they look like they're coming back great. This is "Brass Band" (my favorite) covered in buds.


Also managed to weed a part of the courtyard planter where I've been wanting to plant my collection of heucheras. Got it weeded and planted, but now am not so sure I like the plants all clustered like that. Oh, well. Need to sleep on it, I guess.