Spring is always when the important things begin, at least to me. Color returns to our gray veiled water, sky, and landscape. Now that there is light it is time to get the vegetable and herb gardens going and try to net the tender shoots before the deer sniff them out and nip all the young buds.
They got some of the Bergenia stalks but not all of them
Recent buckets by OD and Milly have roused me to take a few shots of my own backyard. It is interesting to compare our growing progress. Although we are all in the PNW part of Washington State, on or very near the water, just 54 and 28 miles apart (as the crow flies), we have rather different micro-climates that make some differences in the timing of growth. Milly is clearly in a rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, and OD gets some moderating effects of the shadow as well. (my photos were taken on 3/31/15.)
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Continue below the orange mat of compost for more.
Here are some of my versions of the plants that OD and Milly showed:
Big leaf Maple: I have two of them and one is about like the one OD showed and the other is well behind. There is usually about two weeks difference in their maturation.
Then comes Salmonberry. This one looks about the same as those of OD and Milly.
And here is some Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium)
And Salal (Gaultheria shallon)
The plants that we share in common do not seem to be too far apart in development. But that is not too surprising as although our rain totals are different, the temperatures have been relatively similar and we all had a record setting warm winter.
The following are some other pics of plants of interest in our garden. I am sure they are all familiar:
My Spring Favorite: the Trilium
And a few Herbs:
Greek Oregano
Curly leaf Parsley
Lemon Thyme
Chives
And a few veggies:
Red Leaf Lettuce
Radishes
Romaine Lettuce
Rhubarb, one of my staples for pie and wine
And a couple of early garden bloomers: Hellebores
Finally, not because it is any sort of favorite here is pic of ivy. This is just to demonstrate something that I saw for the first time last year and it goes on. Deer eating fresh and tender ivy leaves as they just come on. And these are not starving deer. Why they would stoop to eating ivy I can not understand.
Has anyone else seen deer eat ivy?
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Now It's Your Turn. What have you noted happening in your backyard or your travels? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.