Happy Easter!

My garden:



The magnolias and my sister and me:


And Mike and his vegetables:

(beets, broccoli, kale, cabbage, chard, transplanted yesterday)

Hunting for Morels

Last Tuesday, April 12th, I had an early out day from work. The sun was shining and it was just after 5pm, and since we didn't find a single morel last year, I convinced Mike to kick off the morel hunting season early to improve our chances of success.

Seems it was probably still a little too early, at least in this patch of woods, but the wildflowers were fantastic. It's always fun to go out in the woods in the Spring with Mike because he knows the names of all the flowers, and the ground was just covered with them last week.

anemones

bloodroot

red colored fern

dutchman's breeches

covered with dutchman's breeches

ferns

me searching

It was still a little early for trout lilies and Spring beauties. Last year we found an orchid-like flower, which is a strange sighting in Iowa, so I'm hoping to find one again to get a good picture so we can identify it!

We're anticipating this week will be much better for morels. Hope you can find time for a little Easter egg hunt in the woods this weekend!

Last Week

Here are some pictures from last week that I didn't have time to post until now:

More warm weather!

Another wonderfully warm weekend, ideal for a little gardening. In my front flower bed, I extricated the stray oak leaves (again) and put on some mulch. It makes me so happy, I just want to sit out front and look at it all day. Mike set out some vegs to start the hardening off process: This week I made the first bouquet of the season:

What's blooming now:

First daffodil

hyacinth and violets

another hyacinth

What's about to:

I'm estimating we're about 4 weeks from the last frost, at least to be conservative. I hate the last frost fear that hits right after you've planted everything when you try to get things in the ground early. Well, we'll see! I think it'd be a good time to start some more flowers inside!

Eighty degrees

My blogging has migrated outside once again! Thank you, warm April weather. Here is the view from where I'm blogging: That gorgeous orange blossomed Ranunculus is a new purchase from Lowes today. I have no idea if the plants they have out really can tolerate our current weather, or if they're just preying on Spring Fever to sell a few pretty things. But Ranculus likes cold weather, so I'm optimistic. I also got a creeping phlox, which I've been wanting for awhile for in front of our bedroom window, where we can't really plant anything tall. Here it's pictured with the tulips: I also got this clove-scented dianthus. I'm picturing that it will balance out the white mum on the other side of the garden: More flowers:

open afternoon tulips

closed evening tulips

pansies around the mailbox

Sorry, Fall. Spring is now my favorite.