Woodland area in April

 this is a view of the back corner of the woodland.  You see the trunks of the colony of sumacs.   Under the trees are the dames rocket (hesperis), the fawn lilies.  There is a little black bamboo in the back corner.  There is a well established Japanese anemone, a huge herb with leaves and stems that can be used as a sweetener, there are several little shrubs that had to be moved and this seemed like the space for them.  There are columbines (one very nice red one and the blue ones that self seed everywhere)  I let a couple of thistles grow as the butterflies seem to like them, and finches like the seeds. These are the  ones with the big purple flowers.  I have to keep after these too as they spread everywhere.  There are a couple more large leaved perennials, the names of which I have forgotten, but they add a lush, forest floor in the summer when it is so dry.  There is lemon balm and numerous other surprises in this area over the year.  The worst thing about it is the bluebells which are very aggressive and crowd out everything. They do did down but are too thick to make a good show.  I must pull them out this year and try to get them under control if not entirely eradicated.

 A close up of the yellow fawn lily

 some of both kinds of the fawn lilies.  They are slowly spreading but are very well behaved.

 This is the Saskatoon berry trees above the half barrel water feature.  The Saskatoons were covered in blooms this year, so perhaps I will get a pie from them about mid July!  From the water feature back to corner, plus the area across the chip trail and behind as well as beside the garage is the area I think of as the woodland area.  The tall tree next the Saskatoons is a Japanese cedar that is a bronze green in summer and quite a colorful bronze orange in winter.  It needs to be cleaned up, higher up the tree than I can reach, but at the bottom it is looking quite 'Japanese-ish' in the way it grows with sweeping, graceful boughs. Across the chip trail there is a rhodo, a lily of the valley shrub, huge ferns, daylilies, a gorgeous hydrangea.  As you can see I have planted a few bulbs also.  There are white and purple water iris in the tub, as well as the required goldfish to keep the mosquitoes under control.

 This is a couple of the woodland plants at the side of the garage.  Along this 15 foot area, there is a cedar hedge with the trail and then the plants next to the garage.  The dames rocket also self seeds in this area along with honesty.  The bleeding heart, below, is at the end of the woodland area where I keep the large green bin for my compost service.  I also have my old black compost bin behind the garage, under the lily of the valley shrub.  I took a few bags of compost out of it last Fall and put them on the vegetable garden.  It still has some well done compost in it, but is hard to dig it out.

We have had a bit of rain today, and it has been cooler out, so I have not been out mush.  It won't take long once I get out there, I am sure.

We have had a rufous sided towhee attacking its reflection in the window next to the front door.  We taped a piece of cardboard on the window and that seems to have stopped this birds behavior.  It makes the entrance to our house look a bit shabby!

All of the photos were taken in April.  We had a warm winter with a few good wind storms.  Now we are still having cool, rainy weather.