This is the bed which we planted the astilbe. They have yet to sprout. I dug them up two weeks ago to see if they had rotted. They were just starting to grow roots. Before I replanted them, I added sand, compost, and humus to the soil. I'm just going to have to be patient with these. This is where the one daffodil was. In the sunny corner, we planted some geraniums. 
Only two of our mums survived from last fall. Since the bed was fairly empty, we planted yellow marigolds and red salvia. The little, old lady across the street really likes to look at them.
We've always had a spigot on the west side of the house but it didn't have a handle. Matt fixed that little problem. It's really nice having a hose on that side so I can water my front plants. 
The irises! The irises! This is the first time I've ever seen them in full bloom. All the full grown plants are blooming. The babies will get big enough this year to bloom next year. Most of the irises are white or deep red. The two next to the patio are yellow. I had no idea which plants were going to be which colors. I took these pictures last weekend, which also happened to be the last sunny day we had. Of course, I never mind the rain. The less I have to water the garden!
So here we are tackling (helping) our trees. These pictures are from the first of May. The pile of wood in the first picture is what is left from the tree that was growing sideways in our yard. It was about 30 feet tall. Since it was already leaning into our yard, it fell right into our yard. In the second picture, we also cut off the who-knows-how-old 30-foot sprout from this tree. It had strung itself out over the middle of our yard. We have a little more sun in our yard, but not much. The taller trees still make sure we have no more than partial sun anywhere in our yard. Next, I'll be posting pictures of more irises blooming (very pretty) and the tree and brush cleanup in the yard. For now, back to the yard. Matt has just uncovered a whole bunch of weeds for me to pull up. Yeah!
Here are the last of the "survivor" plants. The black and blue sage is in the pot. It definitely didn't like to be overwintered in the basement. He may eventually go in the yard like the lemon verbena. They're good pals. The sage is starting to flower now. He gets almost-black shoots and then produces blue flowers. In the other picture, we have the rockcress which is almost flowered out in this picture. He had quite a few white flowers on him in early April. Behind the rockcress is the daffodil that we transplanted from the front yard. He was in full shade and by himself. Poor Daffodil! So after he was done flowering, we placed him by the irises. 
Here are most of the plants that Gail will recognize quickly. The ferns, bleeding hearts and hostas are from her garden! The hostas are loving it in the partial shade under that tree. They're twice as big as they were last year. One of the bleeding hearts is as big as the hostas, as you can see in the first picture. As for the ferns, they're the same size as last year. The one on the left doesn't like the amount of sun he gets. I may move him to the far right. We'll see though. He may go somewhere else in the yard after it's "gardenable." The sweet woodruff (the low plant with white flowers) has doubled it size. It LOVES where he's at in the garden. He gets clusters of little star-shaped flowers. He also smells of vanilla. Apparently, the Germans use this herb to flavor wines. Matt says the woodruff is going to take over the entire bed soon! :)
Most of these plants are the ones that survived the basement over the winter. The first one is of Matt's Australian bottlebrush plants. We've been growing them for three years now. They still haven't bloomed. Three of those plants didn't make it over the winter. The second picture is of my lemon verbena. I love this plant even though he doesn't like to grow in a pot. When we're done spraying Round-up all over the yard, we'll put him in the ground. The third plant, is our sedum. He's been faithfully coming back year after year (in the same pot) and has even survived my old apartment basement (aka. the basement of death). The sedum had a bad insect infestation in March which he got from the wedding mums in the basement. He's much better now. The fourth picture is of the Narcissus we transplanted from the front yard. They didn't like the transplanting which is why they're all limp. We'll see how they turn out next year. The last picture is of my dear peonies. They're not very tall but at least they're alive. When we transplanted them last April, they didn't appreciate that and one turned black! I thought it was a goner. But both plants have shot up leaves this spring which makes me happy. They won't flower this year and I'm not even holding my breath for next year. Perhaps the year after that though they'll flower.
So Matt got a Saginaw brick for Christmas. I'm not quite sure of it's origin, but I know it's from where Matt grew up. We decided it would be a great starter to our yard. It now sits on the edge of the patio as a starter block to the rest of our yard projects. Here is also a picture of our blueberry bush with his first two blossoms along with a ladybug! How cute is that? These irises all budded at the same time. I took that picture on 05/01/10. There will be another picture of them all in bloom later.
