First appearances this past week included red hot poker, yellow primroses, the lavender clematis over on the shed, pink calla lilies, the oakleaf hydrangea, Stella d’ Oro daylilies, some small daisy-like plants, foxgloves, penstemons, gauras, and some of the hostas and heucheras. Susie has four large planters with oriental lilies in them which are blooming as well, One is bright yellow with deep reddish centers. Oh, the lamb’s ears are also blooming—bright pink with those soft, fuzzy leaves that feel like—well—lamb’s ears! They are the family verbascum which includes a common wild plant, the yellow mullein. This is a plant you see growing on poor, gravelly soil in fields or on high road banks. It sends out tall spikes with yellow flowers up and down the stalks. The large base, pointed leaves start out like rosettes, quite thick at the bottom and growing up and around the stem as it grows. The leaves are smaller at the top. Come winter they can still be seen in the fields. Birds like bluebirds and kingbirds use them as perches.

     My garden looks pretty good now. All the tomato and pepper plants looked a sickly yellow green for a long time, common for transplants. It takes a while for them to start growing roots beyond the old potting soil and drawing water from the native soil. You can tell when they are okay when they start turning deep green. Have a row of green beans up but have some sort of rust disease on them already. Okra is up and looking good and all but one hill of squash is up and growing “famously” (that’s 1800s lingo for “great”!). Even have small patches of lettuce, chard and radishes coming on. I also put up the cages and stakes for the tomatoes, but in my greed to get as much stuff in the garden, I got the tomatoes a little too close together. Now I’ll have problems getting my big fat body between the plants and cages in order to guide the growth up into them and when harvest time comes it’ll be difficult to pick.

     In the wild the elderberries are indeed blooming as is Queen Anne’s lace (wild carrot). Everything has greened up rapidly. The mockingbird is one of the noisiest we’ve had in years. He’s going constantly, imitating blue jay, kingbird, vireo, Carolina wren, red-shouldered hawk, flicker, crested flycatcher, and others along with his own repertoire. He’ll start as early as 4:15 a.m. Some of them will sing all through the night. Ours likes to sit atop the fireplace chimney. It’s a working fireplace but we don’t use it anymore. Stinks up the house on cold damp days! We had it capped because the starlings were nesting in it. Now the mocker sits up there and sings. It echoes down the chimney like a bullhorn. We already have a family of Carolina wrens, and many baby robins already fledged, and grackle already awing are still being fed by the parent birds, as the young-of-the-year begin showing up. We have about three sizes of bunnies. A day or so ago I watched the big (mama?) bunny and a little one running and playing. We have chipmunks everywhere. I’m guessing there are at least four separate “colonies” or families. One under the holly tree, one under the cedar and the shed area, one in Susie’s woodland garden, and one out front at the front porch and along the holly hedge. We’ve gotten to the point where we can walk right up to them.

     Take Care, Be Safe, Hang Tuff, and God Bless. 

Editor's Note: If you would like to write about your back yard, please feel free to do so. And include photos. JAF