Hello again! I’ve been writing about this garden for over seven years, but haven’t posted with the Six on Saturday gang since last fall. Now I’m ready to dip my toe back into the enormous ocean of posts that devoted gardeners worldwide share each Saturday. What a great group, led by The Propagator! I hope to find the verve to contribute at least monthly.

ONE – Mid-spring on our mountain means daffodils have almost faded, except for some of the late Delnashaugh, and more tulips are opening each day. We don’t have much success with tulips returning, so I treat them as annuals. That said, we plunked some bulbs from faded “perennial” tulips into soil around our biggest Douglas fir tree late last spring and many of them made a showing. Here are the remaining blooms, and yes, forsythia is still in bloom in the background.

TWO – Two years ago, the greenhouse was installed and ever since has been a huge boon to our garden. Early morning, when the light first streams through, is one of my favorite times to be working in the space.

THREE – I successfully overwintered plenty of veggies, from carrots to kale, in their raised beds under mini hoop houses. Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ rarely disappoints, and this basket was filled with leaves from chard planted early autumn 2020. (And how ’bout that beautiful garden basket? A Christmas gift from beautiful daughters!) A portion of the bed is still producing chard, while the rest is filled with various lettuces.

FOUR – Up on Chicken Hill, beneath a young Rainier cherry tree, a bunch of Anemone sylvestris ‘Madonna Snowdrop’ are lovely as their petals open in the morning sun. A cloudy afternoon, and their petals close up again. I’m sure glad I started these from tiny seeds a few years ago. Next year: more, please!

FIVE – We’re having the exterior of our house painted this month, and it will be an enormous project. I’m already sweating the care and protection of plants in the danger zones. The front exterior has been filled with the fragrance of Hyacinth orientalis in a riot of pastel colors I can appreciate only in springtime. Next to bloom will be the rhododendrons, if they all survive the painting. We removed the gigantic Clematis Montana from the white pillar in preparation, and it’s already springing back to life.

SIX – It’s fitting to end on a sweet, if weedy note. These woodland forget-me-nots, Myosotis sylvatica, pop up all over Coppertop, as they’re known to do around the world. They invite us to bend in close for detail, appreciating the moment in the garden.