More scenes in my garden on April 24

 View of the hedge at the front entry way.  The boxwood hedge had just been trimmed with my easy to use rechargeable hedge trimmer.

 More of the boxwood hedge

 Another view of the grass path and boxwood hedge.

 Shooting from the grass path over the little boxwood hedge, past the little rockery, and over the thyme circle to the bench in its tall cedar hedge nook.

a wider view of the front garden from the little boxwood hedge to the bench.

 A closer view of the bench and the thyme circle.  The thyme circle has suffered some damage from the removal of a bamboo root that ran across the thyme.  I am filling in the thyme with new transplants.  I have quite a few spare thyme plants growing in the front garden.

 The iberis along the edge of the driveway under the magnolia tree.

 Some of the rock plants in the little rockery in full bloom.

On June 17 I was to the Butterfly Gardens and got a fine picture of the blue morpho.  While out at the Butterfly Gardens the people  who were running the Species at Risk trailer, said we don't have monarchs on Vancouver Island, but they are sure other butterflies would enjoy the milkweed.  Well, maybe in a few years, if I can get some monarchs for release, to lay eggs on my milkweed, maybe we might get a few monarchs.  It might take a few years and maybe a few more people to grow milkweed, but it would sure be nice to make it happen.  

In the garden on April 24th

 An overview of the pond from the deck.

 An overview of the center of the back garden.

 The newly planted maiden hair fern.

 Heliotrope on the deck.  The heliotrope has finished blooming.  I hope it blooms again.  It has a heavenly scent.

 A close up of the French lavender flower.

 African violet photo right out of the camera

The same photo with the true color of this African violet corrected in photoshop.

 More of the same violet, with the same light problems in the photo, corrected in photoshop.

 I don't mind these colors out of the camera.

The pin oak as it is just leafing out, in an attempt at black and white.

More plants in the garden on April 23

 The blue bells come in 3 colors.  This is the pink variety.  The pink and the white ones do not seem to be as aggressive in spreading as the blue ones.

 The green leaves in the foreground are on a species peony plant.  It had two blossoms this year.  They are just plain, single,  pink with yellow center.

 This is a close up of the little geraniums.  These plants are in bloom most of the summer, if I dead head them. This makes the garden lower maintenance.  I need more of this kind of gardening.

 The Simplicity pink rose in the front garden.

 An allium, also in the front garden.  The alliums are finished blooming and gone to seed.

 The white tulip.  It looks good with so much color around it in the other tulips. The tulips, also are finished blooming now.

 One of my most cherished columbines.  It grows in the flower bed next to the old garage.  I must bag its seed pods so I can spread them around the garden.

The tulips.  There are michaelmas daisies taking over this flower bed, so they need to be thinned out.

Some of the plants in the cutting garden room, the woodland room, and the little rockery of my garden on April 23

 This is a new plant in the little rockery in the back garden.  It is Androsace Sempervivoides or rock jasmine.  It should be covered in pink blossoms next Spring.

 The scleranthus uniflorum (New Zealand Moss) is slowly spreading in the little rockery in the back garden

 The little lewisias in bloom.  These little lewisias have self seeded around the little rockery.

 The chives that grow next to the English Oak tree just along the property line on the east side of the back garden.

 This French lilac grows beside the Oak tree and blooms profusely with the heavenly lilac fragrance.

I have a tall bearded iris bed growing on the other side of the Oak tree.  The iris bed goes to the corner of where my garden meets both neighbors properties.  The herbs, a clematis and the back cedar hedge go along this property line.  Sheila's fence makes a nice back drop for the irises, but I do have two small hedging cedars growing up there.  The stump from the wisteria vine is in this corner where our properties meet.  Once I would  dream about having a trellis for the wisteria in this corner that extended to both neighbors properties with benches under the trellis where we could enjoy visits ... well dream on... it won't happen.

 The tall bearded iris multiply very quickly.  This is one that is in the driveway strip.  It is time to divide them again and replenish the soil.

 This is a wild volunteer small tree in the woodland.  I believe it is an Indian Plum tree.  The birds are supposed to be crazy about these fruits.  As this tree popped up next to my Saskatoon trees you can guess who gets all of those berries, too.  I have a lot of birds in my garden, so don't mind them having the berries.

The top of the woodland area behind our old garage with the Japanese cedar in the center, the pin oak to the left with the lily of the valley just in front of the oak.  The oak was just opening its leaves at this time.  Most other trees were fully leaved out at this time, even the English oak.  

The water garden room on April 23

 There is now an aubretia at the top of the waterfall.  I won this plant as a door prize at the Rock and Alpine show and sale this year.  Hopefully this plant will be cascading down the rocks in a few more years.

The primula garden borders the moss/Japanese garden next to the pond.

 A new blue primula in the garden this year.

 This is the newly opened up view from the patio area to the pond.  It crosses the stepping stones pass, over the primula bed and past the moss/Japanese garden to the pond.  The stepping stones on the right side of the photo lead past the rhodos/azaleas to under the deck where there is more moss, ferns and other shade loving plants.

This is a view from the entry to the water garden, showing the new willow with the silver leaves in the foreground.  That frog sitting on the moss is real.  I have two of them in the pond now, dually recorded with the people with all the degree letters behind their names at the Provincial Governments's Frogwatch department:   Nome of whom can advise on how to catch a bull frog.  But do I want someone with a Ph.D income  spending my tax dollars on catching frogs?  They are very good at sending around emails to  each other, though.

The dry stream under the deck newly lined with wood pieces, showing some of the plants in this shade garden, and the chair I have in the shade.  Sure needed that shade the last few days when we have had up 30 degree temperatures.  The Frogwatch people mentioned that the warmer summers we have had have been conducive to the spread of these invasive bull frogs.

A viiew of the moss/Japanese garden area with the dry stream that leads under the deck.  I hope this moss spreads out more to the edge of the primula bed.  I have serveral different kinds of moss in this moss/shade garden.

A closer view of the pond shooting from the stepping stone path.  This photo is to capture the new volunteer tree that came with the pot of the shooting star, and the little pine tree that is in the space occupied by the blue spruce that outgrew its space and was taken out.

A closer look at the pine tree, the mossy rock, the Japanese maple and other plants in this area.  The little pine was transplanted from the little rockery in the back garden, where this one too was outgrowing its space.  The pine has survived its move and seems to have grown quite a bit since its move.  

Some of the flowers in bloom in my garden on April 23

 The tree peony is tall and is next to the entry way.  Was putting on a fabulous show in April.  It is growing new stems this year, so I have cut back to the surrounding cedar.  When the cedar grows out again it will appear to be a surrounding vase for the peony.  The cedar branches support the peony stems.

 This mahonia has self seeded itself into the 5 foot driveway strip.  It has dark green evergreen holly-like leaves.  It is a natural plant in our area.  And a very nice landscaping plant too.

 Solomons seal.  I spent a lot of time photoshpping this to clone and smudge out the very bright areas and attempt to blur the foreground and sharpen the rest.

 A tulip against the cedar hedge along the driveway strip.

 The sedum under the burgundy colored leaves of the smoke bush.

 Another nice columbine in the front garden.

 An allium with the little rockery plants in bloom for a nice background

 Tall bearded iris in bud in the driveway strip

This is the front rectangle on the west side of the front garden.  The lupine you see in the foreground has now finished blooming and is going to seed. The little hedge has been pruned drastically.  I am thinking of replacing it with boxwood clippings in the rainy season.  This is honeysuckle pilea and the bees like it, but it tends to get ratty looking with age.