The Daily Daff

Ok, I don't know if I can call it a "Daily Daffodil" entry if I don't have time to post every day. I DID manage to wander around in the yard briefly and took some pics...mostly I was tempted to do so because more daffodils were opening! This guy here, in particular, was begging for attention.

Was late getting home after work yesterday because I was picking up some supplies for upcoming projects.

But let's be honest - when these are part of the project, how can you not look forward to it?

One of these things is not like the others...

In addition to more daffodils opening up yesterday, there was a brand new color in the beds. I'm not sure what got this one tulip opening up before any others look like they're ready. It also seems a bit stumpy - good be it was a damaged bulb. I've noticed that plants that seem to have had a harder lot in live, are damaged or handicapped in some way, often seem to come to fruition sooner. My theory? That the plant really just wants to get its seeds out there, and if it realizes it's going to have a shorter life, maybe it doesn't try so hard to look pretty or taste better...it just does everything faster. Oh well, in the case of this guy, I'm not complaing! Talk about vibrant!

Ok, now we're on to TODAY'S pictures... It wasn't raining when I got home - I grabbed the mail and did my walk around the yard (no, not a security check - it's just fun to see what's changed since the day before!). I noticed some of the chives I planted last fall on the side of the house are coming up nicely...

Sure, chives taste great in some dishes, but they're also quite beautiful, especially when in bloom, or just offering a change in texture from all the other leaves around them. But upon closer inspection I noticed something more curled coming up from the base of the chives. Waitasec... (stoop) (pick) (snick) WTH!? Okaaaaay, so now it looks like the side landscaping will eventually evolve into a mint patch. I thought I did a REALLY good job of making sure the only mint planted was in buried containers. Looks like someone snuck through. Andy at work hasn't taken the rest of us gardeners too serious when we warn him about mint. He'll learn... ;-) (Ok, to be honest, I'm not going to dig this up just yet. If anything, I might transplant it, but right now I don't have a designated herb garden area, so I'll just give it a little while longer here. You can hit me with an "I told you so" later...)

By now the rain was starting to come down more, so rather than run all around the yard again, I shot some distance pictures... Here's the front flower bed with all the daffodils and tulips coming up, plus hints of other plants I put in last fall returning. What's nice about this bed is it's my view from the upstairs office - plus it's what I notice people walking around the block stop and look at....so you KNOW it's gonna get some extra special attention! Oh, and btw - the redbud tree in the left of the picture shows signs of the buds swelling. There aren't many yet, but I look forward this tree becoming big and beautiful in the years to come!

Ok, so for the Daily Daff post, here's today's shot - I think the white-with-yellow-cup or white-with-orange-cup varieties of daffodils are my favorites... There should be some grape hyacinths peeking up along here before too long as well...

And on the front corner bed I'm real excited to see the return of these guys - it'll be my first successful year with lupine. I've tried them from seed and storebought plants at the condo and they just never made it. Now I've got two little clumps like this showing some real promise... I left the tags in the ground in the fall just so I knew where to look for stuff....looks like I'm not going to need markers for these guys any longer!