Spring is well underway

here at Heartland Gardens. Gonna start changing the focus of the blog back to the gardens now that Mom is doing pretty good. We are so pleased with her progress - she gets out in her wheelchair to both the front porch and back porch to enjoy the weather and the gardens. Her nurse is so pleased with her progress that she is only coming once a week to check on her - life is good and we thank God for her progress. It is such a joy to see her enjoying life again.

Now onto the gardens - we have had a pretty good spring with good amounts of rain and all the plants are loving it. Tom and I have been able to work on the area around the pond where we took the upper pond and stream out. Mom has her fountain placed so she can see it out her window and I have planted the area behind it with a bunch of annuals that I started from seed. We are looking forward to seeing it in full bloom. I have spent the better part of this week working around my shade house, perennial bed and the plant starting area. I am trying to get better organized so that when I start these seeds I can have a better handle on how they are doing and can manage the whole process better. I am very pleased with this years WSing - germination was really good except for one whole tray that I think I cooked the seeds by having them in too much sun - hence the re-organizing of the shade house. Even our early spring sunny days can be too hot for seeds to germinate - I am learning.

Another thing I am learning and trust me this is a BIG thing for me (ask my sister Ruth or even Tom) is to pull out plants even if they still show some life. Today it was the pansies and violas that have graced many of our gardens all winter and early spring. They still looked pretty but it was time because I have summer annuals to replace them and if I didn't get the new ones in the ground I would loose them - so now the mailbox viola garden is replaced with portulaca and other places have zinnias to take over where the larger pansies were. Many containers now have begonias and others have caladiums and coleus and now are on all the various porches. Pictures will look better in about a month when they really take off. The confederate jasimine has been spectacular this spring - every night the air is filled with its fragrance. The gardenias are starting to replace that smell and will last well into July. I try and plan to have something very fragrant blooming all the time.

Two days ago Tom and I managed to score really big at our local Lowes. Seems there was an 'oopppss' in the watering process and as a result a whole big cart of clematis got marked down by 75% so we jumped on that and got 18 clematis at $1.50 each. Customers want 'perfect' plants and I could see that all these needed was some TLC - they have been repotted and watered and look great - now where to put them all - what a wonderful dilenma to have. After giving some to Ruth and setting some aside for Dawn I think we can find places for the rest.

Tom has been having a ball with the veggie garden - it looks so healthy and luscious. I couldn't even begin to list all he has planted but even if we only get a decent yield from 1/2 of what he has planted we will be set for the winter with veggies - yummy.

So far Spring has been good - we are looking forward to a good summer but will take whatever heads our way weather wise. Please keep the mid-west in your prayers - they have been hit so hard with tornados. So until the next time - stop and look around you - there is beauty everywhere

Lynne ~~he who plants a seed - believes in tomorrow~~