There have been so many changes since my Good Bones post back in March! And flower season has begun in earnest.
The lilacs at the end of the driveway are blooming. I did a little trimming on them, and on the plum trees, last month. I didn't want to take too much at once, so they're still very tall, leggy, and leaning, but they're blooming like mad anyway, and so beautiful. I love to go stick my face in the blossoms and breathe deep.
And the roses have started. We have a LOT of roses. I haven't counted, but I'd say the number is at least two dozen bushes. Several of the bushes are these sweet sprays of miniature pink blooms. There are some tawdry fuschia ones by the road, and some wonderful yellow ones tinged with magenta that haven't quite opened up yet. More rose pictures to come, I'm sure.
And the grapes are doing THIS:
Buds! I've never really paid very much attention to grapevines before, and I'm really enjoying watching these grow. I wish I'd taken some pictures of the very young leaves, which were edged in PINK! I don't know the variety: we seem to have at least two kinds, one purple and one green. They have seeds and I assume they're some kind of table grape but it's not a subject I am knowledgeable about so who knows? The ones we got last fall were delicious, in spite of the seeds. I'll be learning how to keep them properly pruned and thinned this summer. Or trying to, anyway.
I put together a bunch of raised beds. These came in a kit*, you just slide the pieces together, kind of like grown-up Lincoln Logs. It took hours to figure out the placement and about fifteen minutes to assemble all of them. They're made with untreated American Cedar and I really like them.
My friend and I hauled three pickup truck loads of free compost from the city of Portland to fill the raised beds. I also expanded all the existing beds and borders by digging up grass and putting down more of that free compost. Say hello to the beginnings of my new herb garden:
Everything is very tiny now but I hope it will all grow very fast. I also planted seeds of a pollinator-friendly, annual flower mix in between the herbs. They've just started to sprout and are too tiny to see in the picture, but I'm hoping for some lovely flowers to fill in the empty spaces while the perennials get bigger.
Next step: mulch, before the really hot weather arrives. I wonder how many bales of straw I can fit in my Honda Civic?
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