Oh, how time flies. The early spring flowers have come and gone, late spring flowers have started to bloom and soon, with summer only weeks away, my garden is getting ready to truly break out in color.

April brought me my “river of blue”; grape hyacinths cascading down on the backside of the waterfall. Last fall I added more bulbs to my river, but thanks to reseeding some day in the not too distant future this part of the garden will be a sight to see in spring. Then, just as the grape hyacinths start to fade, my hardy ice plants turn that same part of the garden a golden yellow. It would be an amazing sight if both grape hyacinths and hardy ice plant bloomed at the same time, but then it would all be over within two or three weeks. Instead, I get to enjoy the river of blue for nearly three weeks and then it all turns gold for weeks on end.

In other parts of the garden trees bloomed; the Caroline silver bell had (duh) bell-like flowers; the Canadian redbud broke out in magnificent magenta flowers while the American Fringe tree dripped with white flowers which smelled heavenly. But this floral feast was over too soon and the trees leafed out. Now they provide puddles of shade; a reprieve from bright sunshine and hot temperatures for shade loving plants at their feet.

The gravel has been put down on the paths which I so carefully cleaned from mulch and decomposed mulch weeks earlier (and re-used it all in flower beds). I now crunch my way through the garden from one end to the other and back again.

Meanwhile the weather has been downright dry. More than a week ago we had a bit of rain; we were supposed to get ½ inch over two days, but instead we got 0.15-inch one day and nothing the next day. Nevertheless, even with that little bit of rain the garden perked up considerably. Then, thankfully, the temperatures dropped a little, the wind stopped blowing so hard and I have been able to water my newly planted plants from the rain barrels in the garden. With the possibility of rain “here and there” in the near future I am hoping for lots of it and soon. If not, I may have to break out in my rain dance, and with my two left feet, that won’t be a pretty sight!