DD decided today that we should have a picnic. I agreed. Today was the quintessential perfect spring day. Bright, warm sunshine, soft cool breeze, trees in bloom, and so on.
So we had sandwiches and a fruit salad on a picnic blanket in the middle of the backyard. It was lovely having the sun on my back and listening to the wind in the fir trees and the tinkling my windchimes.
All this outdoor lovliness led, of course, to springtime sprucing of the yardens.
DH dug up the raspberry canes that were encroaching into the yard (cause we don't need MORE of them). So then we had a nice long bare patch of ground that was begging for some seeds. DD and I went through my shoe box of seed packets (thanks earthmama!) and picked out sunflowers, sweet peas, chyrsanthmums, and asters for the spot. Four different kinds of sunflowers, too! Russian Mammoth, Supermane, Tiger's Eye, and regular Mammoth. All tall buggers, the Russian can grow up to 12'.
DD then sprinkled the packet of Catnip seeds we picked out at the grocery store a few weeks ago. And I finally got around to spreading the Alyssum seeds in the front beds like I've wanted to do since last spring. Then we had some real fun.
I took 14 flower seed packets, dumped them all in a bowl of potting soil, mixed 'em up and sprinkled the mix all over the rose beds, around the trees, and the far west flower bed in the front yard. The flowers:
Mixed Seashell Cosmos
Yellow Garden Cosmos
Picotee Cosmos
California Poppy (a favorite!)
Shasta Daisy
Verbascum Mullein
Gaillardia
Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine
McKanna Giant Columbine
Hollyhocks
Zinna
Sylvestris Nicotiana
Scatter Garden Cut Flower Mix
Wildflowers Of the West Mix
The last two packets were large and had 15 and 18 different kinds of flower seeds in them, respectively. Now we wait and see what comes up this year. If anything does, then next year we'll see what annuals self-seeded and which perennials thrive. I'm hoping this works. Last time I sprinkled a packet of mixed flower seeds the only ones that came up were nasturtiums.
DH pulled the rest of the dead raspberry canes, found rotten bits in the fences, and went to the hardware store to get replacment wood. Fence repair will be a project to keep him busy outdoors on sunny days. He loves DIY stuff like that.
So far the pear tree is blooming, the plum tree is done blooming (that thing will never set fruit), the daffodils are in full swing and the tulips are coming in behind them, and my perennials are popping up and looking chipper, like the hardy geraniums, the saxifraga, the blue-eye grass, and the hardy fushias. There's no sign of my common camas, I think it died, darnnit.
I planted a new perennial shade bed a few weeks ago in the narrow strip by the front walk that gets no sun. I put in Korean sword ferns, violas, bleeding hearts, and two other kinds of bulbs whose names escape me at the moment. All those look happy so far. I can't wait to see what likes it there and spreads itself around.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon. If it doesn't I'll have to go out there and water all the places I scattered seeds.
Next I need to think about the herb bed and the vegetable garden.
I love spring.
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