What does your garden look like ... Today?

[JBtheExplorer]

First bloom of 2017! Common Violet. I added more violets to my garden this year in hopes of attracting more Great spangled fritillary butterflies (who's caterpillars eat violets). It's one of the coolest butterflies in the area, and I only got to see one in my garden last year. Might take a few years for the violets to establish well enough to attract them, but we'll see.

 

[Elena]

My weekend's work. I want to have 3 sorts of apple in one tree.

 

[Elena]

My green house is waiting for the tomatoes.

 

[Elena]

And finally just nature.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I don't often show a full shot of my main native garden. I like to focus on the plants and insects that use them, but I thought I'd share so you'd see what it looks like (You can also use the blueprint in my showcase to get a better idee of the overall shape and size). Things will be considerably different in a month, and even more so in two, as it'll be all filled in.

Here's a shot of Wild Lupine. The leaves collect water in the center.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Violet.

Wild Columbine

and, the shot of what a Spring garden should look like. I don't remove leaves because they shelter hibernating insects such as caterpillars and butterflies. I leave stems at least a foot tall for bees. In about a month, it'll be all covered up by this year's plant growth.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

A Red Admiral on one of my few remaining non-native plants, Grape Hyacinth.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

My peach tree is starting to bloom. I'm hoping for better luck this year, Last year I had leaf curl and in the end, I only was able to eat one peach. After that, I sprayed a copper-based fungicide in early Winter. I probably should've done it again in early Spring but I completely forgot about it.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Butterflyweed and Common Milkweed is starting to pop up out of the soil. This should be the first year the Common Milkweed flowers, so I can hardly wait!

 

[Owdboggy]

I am going in for a medical procedure soon so I took the camera for a walk to see how the gardens will fare without me input.
http://s703.photobucket.com/user/Owdboggy/slideshow/Pre-op garden tour
or
http://s703.photobucket.com/user/Owdboggy/library/Pre-op garden tour

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I moved my wood pile over to the edge of my native garden. That'll provide shelter for all sorts of things (frogs, toads, chipmunks, rabbits, insects, etc.)

The House Wren has already been enjoying hopping around it.

Wild Columbine is growing quickly. It should start to bloom in a week or so.

Prairie Dock is shooting up. This plant gets massive leaves, and I'm still not completely sure if I'll keep it in the garden, but I'm going to wait until it flowers to decide. This is only its second year, so it's still small.

Butterflyweed and Swamp Milkweed are continuing to grow.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Oh, and Wild Geranium is going to bloom any moment! I added this to the garden a year ago and have been patiently waiting for this moment.

 

[johnny canoe]

Well my backyard is always a mess in the spring until my customers have bought up my plants. Here's some of them, I just did a trim on Petunias and spaced them out so they will be looking real good in a couple of weeks when they get sold.

 

[Thumper38]

We got the garden tilled up yesterday and started transplanting today.

Maters, cucumbers, sweet peppers, cantaloupe, jalapeno, habinaroes, and carolina reapers. Ill plant the climbing French beans and sweetcorn later.

And as an asside. My lillies are doing very nicely.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Lanceleaf Tickseed started flowering less than a week ago. I'm seeing a lot of native bee activity by it, and I'm surprised I didn't capture any in this photo.

Blue Flag Iris opened up in the native garden today. It's been open over by my pond for more than a week.

Spiderwort has been attracting a lot of small bees, like this Metallic Green Sweat Bee.

and my Wild Lupine is nearing the end of its bloom period.