I can't wait for Spring to arrive!

Green...... and colors. I'm ready for spring and literally hundreds of bulbs to spring up out of my flower beds and once again say hello to the world. December and January were just too cold, and February has finally started a warming trend, accompanied by some rain here in the valley (snow in the mountains). It hit 60 on Saturday and I thought it was heaven. I spent the afternoon clipping my healthy, but ancient roses that have been growing along my driveway for decades. They were planted by the previous owner, and provide their own burst of colors starting in May.

When we bought this home, there was no real yard, or flower beds to speak of. Other than the roses and an enormous sycamore in the park strip, there was no landscaping. There wasn't any sprinkler system, and the back yard appeared overgrown by some sort of enormous shrub/bush thing. The back yard isn't huge--maybe 35 feet from the edge of the house to the fence. Most of it was sold to a developer who put in an apartment building in the mid 1990's. I don't like to think about what could have been.

When I started clipping away at that shrub thing, my goal was to destroy--and I had no idea that it covered a small concrete patio on the south side of the lawn. Once it was gone, we also found the dying remains of a peach tree. It didn't make it. There was no real grass, and in Utah, you have a real tough time keeping grass alive without sprinklers.

We gave a feeble attempt, but in 2003, in went sprinklers, sod, and concrete edging. It was an exciting spring. Suddenly, we had a real lawn, and a way to keep all sorts of plants alive. We did lose the Sycamore to various factors. It had been topped once, and was rotting from the ground up, and we had to replace our sidewalk, all of which meant the end. I was sure glad it was technically the city's tree and they had to pay for its removal. The flower beds were ( and are) incredible. At that point, they were a blank slate. Now they have become an endless stream of colors. I can thank my friend Maria Sawdey for many of them. Maria is a woman with a true love for gardening. Her garden is an inspiration to any who have seen it. She brought me all sorts of perennials which helped get things started. From one little plant, they grow wonderfully, until I've even separated them, given plants to others, etc. In addition, my Dutch roots must inspire me to buy more and more bulbs each year, so spring is a festival for me.

When it comes, I'll start my daily walk through the yard to see what progress has come--counting it in inches, and blooms, and the which parts of the yard are in their glory.

PS--the pictures aren't spring flowers--they are fall bloomers. The one on the right is Autumn Joy Sedum. Can't think of the left one right this moment.