There are always things to do out in the garden but sounds like you are making great progress on your chores. And you garden is always so beautiful.

How are your tulips doing? And your dutch iris? Are they up yet.?

I spent a lot of time outdoors today myself.

I cleaned out all my birdhouses so that the birds can pick whichever one they want when they look this spring. Chicadees and House Wrens usually nest in them.

Then I planted four large pots of Sugar Lace II snap peas. I had peas in these pots last fall. I have found that peas do really well in large pots. I still have seeds left of the Sugar Lace so I will probably plant another pot or two, Not today though. I have decided I will place my Cascadia snap peas in ground, maybe I will do that tomorrow. And I watered the Super Sugar Snap peas I planted last week.

I was out and about the garden doing spring cleanup so carefully looking at things and tulip bulbs are comming up all over the place. I have never had so many tulips as I am going to have this year. So excited about that and can't wait for blooms.

At least I have some crocus, the lovely blue iris reticulata and a very few daffoldils blooming.

Rita, I am bushed! I have been working as much as possible in the garden, since I neglected it last year. It still has a lot of work to be done, but I've done an awful lot. Here are pics from today.

View from front with the Come Back Red tulips I planted among the daylilies - background red group is blooming for 3rd year:

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Iris bed at end of greenhouse. Weeded and mulched. No the mulch isn't touching the iris, but it looks as if it is. I am not going to weed the entire bed repeatedly any more. It has to be done over and over. I will try this, but I plan to eliminate one of the beds of irises this year. I have some duplicates which will be about half of it. I am finished with having this much area tied up. They are beautiful, but such short term beauty.

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All three beds are weeded and and 2 are mulched, (as are all but a handful of the daylilies) and it was an unbelievably long and difficult weeding job.

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Rita, I hope the dutch iris will open for Easter. The first group, next to the original iris bed, have almost died out and will have to be replaced. Short term perennials.

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I weeded this area today. The columbine have buds on them.

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The roses are leafing out but not budded yet:

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Weeded, Preened and partially mulched yesterday:

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Sparse hiding grounds for Easter eggs. I'll have to expand the area some.

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I've reset most of the path stones now, but still have a few to do:

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Tulips along the strip where I plant zinnias in summer. You can see the row alongside the greenhouse too.

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Strip of knockouts behind the greenhouse. DH loves these, and they are weeded, mulched, and trimmed. The voes had killed one of them on the other end.

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It seemed impossible to begin with, but I am making wonderful progress now that the weather is warmer. Of course, we have a lot of rain in the forecast, but I am not complaining about rain after the years of drought. I am very tired, but...

Kay. It is all looking very nice,and I love them Tulips. soo pretty.I have not been working in the yard for close to two weeks, but, was out pulling weeds out from around 5 till 7:30 this evening.The weeds has almost took over my entire gardens.Planned to try and do some more tomorrow, but, weather man is saying thunderstorms tomorrow through most of next week, too.I did get almost 2 inches of rain last Saturday, but the ground dried out so fast and got like a brick again, till I watered everything yesterday morning.I am hoping now that it don't rain all day, on these days they predicting the rains so maybe I will be able to get some more done.

jean

Lovely Kay. I enjoy seeing the tulips and you certainly have been busy. Take some time to just sit and enjoy.

Suppose to get to 50's here this weekend but on Easter we will get rain.

Julia

Beautiful pictures Kay, My tulips are just popping thru the ground. Daffodils might bloom tomorrow. I am going to clean off daylily beds today and cover them with plastic since our weather doesn't want to warm up here.

My yard got neglected last year because of the high temps and health issues. I had a seizure end of July and wound up in the hospital for 3 days. Docs couldn't figure out why I had one. I had never had one before. But they did give me a big dose of magnesium while I was there. After getting home I noticed I had no more hip or back pain that had bothered me for over 10 years. So I started researching magnesium deficiency. Amazing all the problems a deficiency in magnesium causes. Since I've been taking my magnesium and B-12 I feel better than I have in years. I can't wait to get out in the yard this year. Just wish Mother nature would cooperate. This old body isn't as broke as I thought it was. LOL

Oh no, health scares and hospital stays. I hope all stays well!

Kay, your garden is looking very good and oh so spring like. Amazing how much further ahead you are than I am here in terms of spring flowers and growth. That extra cold moth of March we had didn't help matters here.

I especially love the tulips in the zinnia strip. I like the way that section does double duty what with the tulips in spring and the zinnias for the rest of the season. You know I love zinnias!

And I agree that the Tall Bearded Iris beds are a lot of work. I love them when they bloom but certainly am not adding more Iris sections. TB are not like the Siberian Iris which require no real care.

My Dutch Iris are mostly up. I did add new ones last fall so we will see how they do this spring. But I do love the Dutch Iris. And I agree that every few years one needs to replant. Still the mixed colors I bought from Scheepers maybe 4 years ago now and put in my TB iris bed are doing great. Come up each year and bloom well.

Love the Come back tulips and the way they light up your entire garden.

Jean, I have burned once, but the burn pile is enormous again. And sill more weeding to do. I feel your pain. Just e careful.

Thanks, Julia, we are getting rain again Ester too. I will not complain, since it is much better to have a lot of rain than to have the drought. I still have a lot to do, but I also have some planting to do as soon as it is safe. (freeze wise)

Timberohio, I can identify. My garden was neglected for no really good reason but the heat last year.

Make ure you are getting enough Vitamin D too. It is wonderful that you discovered the magnesium missing piece. congrats. Do start slow. Otherwise, you'll feel as if you've been beaten.

Rita, that zinnia strip has turned out to be a favorite part of my garden.

The dirt has improved so much since I have been mulching. I plan to plant cleome and coreopsis along with the zinnias this year.

And, you know how it is, I am already figuring out next year's bulb order. By the way, the zinnia strip has had a lot of the queen of the night tulips to return from last year. Another color is also returning, but they haven't bloomed yet, so I don't know what it is.

Yes, I really love the dutch iris, so will be planting some this fall. I have had an unreal increase in the dutch iris I planted next to the front roses. I may divide them this fall since they are the dark purple ones I love.

I cannot wait for pictures of all your tulips. That is going to be a traffic stopper for sure. I have a bunch of seeds in the greenhouse and a lot of plants too, so as soon as I feel frost safe,
I will be planting. I placed a small order from Annie's Annuals, and the plants came and are beautiful. The shipping is obscene,
but I'm used to that from the roses, and these are sent second day air.

See how pretty they are in their 4 inch pots?

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Gotta figure out where to hide Easter eggs in my scanty cover. I was hoping for azalea bloom, but no such luck, just the buds:

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Happy Easter anyway.
kay

You gotta dye those Easter Eggs brown to blend in with the garden mulch if you want them to be harder to find.

Nice little plants but then Annies has such great stuff.

That is good that you had return on tulips that you probably were not expecting return on. We will see what kind of return I get here next year after all these tulips bloom this year. But honestly, I walk around the garden and look and there are tulips comming up EVERYWHERE!