The month is coming to a close with a couple days of rain showers.  They provide welcome relief from the burst of summer-like weather we had mid week and give a good soaking to all the new veggie seedlings in their beds. The first tulips are opening, overlapping bloom time with some of the last daffodils. May will definitely be tulip month here. Other flowers in the landscape include the delicate blue sprays of Brunnera macrophylla and our native Trillium ovatum.

April has been a month of re-tuning those gardening muscles. Much has been accomplished in the garden, which is easiest to track in list form:

• Lifting and supporting a few leaning trees and shrubs with a borrowed winch
• Planting all the lower dahlia beds
• Major weeding and mulching throughout with more on the horizon
• Planting all but two of our raised veggie beds
• Potting and delivering over a dozen delphiniums, many Alchemilla mollis and Japanese anemones, and a few dozen tomato seedlings to the upcoming master gardener plant sale
• Adding gladiolus bulbs to a few beds
• Cleaning up both strawberry beds
• Transplanting so many goodies into various beds  — Dianthus (mixed Sweet William), Aquilegia (Black Barlow columbine), Astrantia (Star of Beauty and Star of Royals masterwort), Anemone (Honorine Jobert), Eryngium (Sea Holly), Alcea Rosea (Halo Blush hollyhock); Papaver (Royal Wedding and Black Peony poppies) and Rudbeckia hirta