The Spring Rush

With last week's "heat wave," spring has come on incredibly fast in central NC. Everything has come into bloom at once. Tasks multiply like rabbits and I cannot possibly keep up.

The feeling of wonder at spring's beauty is often hand in hand with the feeling of being overwhelmed. We have been replacing fence posts over the last few weeks, which has put us a little behind on other tasks. It's also time to repatch the stall and shelter roofs (tin roofs often need patching around the nails, and asphalt composite roofs need a fresh coat of asphalt every couple of years or so), mow the floodway fields so that they won't go back to forest, fertilize the pastures, raise up the floor of one of the stalls so that it doesn't get soaked near the door after every rain, add more screenings to the round pen, and repaint the house after just 3 years. The house was painted after the move but the paint is popping off again.

Everything that needs to get done usually gets done but it's going to take some time. Maybe it's best to think about flowers for now.

The lovely blue woodland phlox has come into bloom. I don't have as much as I had two years ago, but any amount is welcome.

'Louisiana'

This dainty Tiarella is wonderfully fragrant.

The brilliant PPPP with 'Homestead' Verbena

Everything has greened up so fast.

The native azaleas went from bud to full bloom in a couple of days.

The Encore Amethyst Azaleas are not covered with flowers, having been nibbled by deer earlier, but the color of the flowers that are there is very vivid. It usually has a lot more flowers in fall than spring anyway.

Who says native azaleas are less showy than the Asian species?

Piedmont Azalea

The apple tree blossoms came on quickly too.

This Mazus has crept out from under the 'Hansa' into the path in the garden next to the house.

I got this pink sorrell in a trade and it's much showier than the typical pink sorrell.

These little figs overwintered. If we don't get a cold snap, the fig tree will be in the best shape this spring that it's ever been.

In prior springs, we've been looking at many dead stems rather than leafed out branches. We've had this fig about 5 years.

It's been 2 years since we've seen the Wisteria in full bloom. Freezes catch it out about every other year.

Halfway open

A day later, in full bloom. Such a wonderful fragrance.

The iris are not usually quite this early.

'Nightfall'

'Crimson King' yesterday with the daffs that have kept blooming in spite of the warmth, thanks to afternoon shade.

Pollen

I think these 2 pictures about sums up the pollen situation here.

Out with the old, in with the new

Early each spring the garden is a mix of the old and the new: last year's spent stalks mixed with the fresh green emerging leaves.

Or in this particular case, last year's hay used as mulch for 'Blush Noisette'.

I spent this weekend finishing the garden clean-up at an almost feverish pace.

The cats have been faithful gardening companions. I'm outside with them and on the ground, I must be there to pet them, right? After getting her allotment of attention Prissy is content to lay nearby.

Here she is resting in the shade of some old Biden stalks as I was in the process of taking them down.

Here comes Tommy. He's a Maestro when it comes to getting as much attention as possible.

As you can see from all of the pulled weeds in the path, the chickweed and the grasses have taken off at an alarming rate. I leave the Lamium because the bees love it. The big perennial bed is a pasture of Lamium right now.

The temps have reached the mid to upper '80s here so it hasn't exactly been hot. The humidity is low and there has been a good breeze. The warmth is drawing out the flowers like crazy. A few days ago the redbud went from this

to this.

And like always, the bees are going nuts over the flowers! Carpenter bees, bumblebees, and honeybees are all over the tree in swarms.

Almost every spring I see a huge snapping turtle, usually going from our ditch to the neighbor's pond. This year I saw her(?) going from the woods to the ditch.

There are all of these wonderful shades of spring green.

The daffodils have held up well to the hot sun.

The daffs around this rose are supposed to be Thalia, but is it possible to be unhappy with these?

The serviceberries did blow out very quickly, but they never last that long anyway. I love them but it's so hard to get a decent picture!

Everything seems to be coming into bloom all at once.

More pictures to follow -- the blossoms on one of the apple trees is open, the crabapple down in the floodway field is full of buds, and we're getting to see the wisteria bloom this year.

After a two year hiatus, the chickadees are indeed using the nest box at the back of the big perennial bed. They were fussing at me the other night because they thought I was too close as I was working. Today they didn't seem to take any notice. I'm not sure if the female is incubating already or not.

By the way, these pictures were taken before The Yellow Haze descended two days ago. Today I was filling the water trough in the horse pasture and a huge cloud of pollen came billowing from the pine trees. It was such a ridiculous amount of pollen that it was actually funny. I'll have to post pictures of Prince's face. It looks like someone hit him with a big yellow powder puff.