Rain + Sun + More Rain + Sun = Spring Magic

Mid-week, the garden was a mass of leaves and a lot of buds. Then all of a sudden, the equation of rain and sun and more of both equalled a remarkable transformation.  I stood on the path to one of my backyard pocket gardens with camera in hand. Mystified, I didn't know where to point the lens first!

In fact it is a challenge ticking off all the plants in the North Fork spring garden. Columbine or aqualegia, the state flower of Colorado, is a common wildflower that has made a place for itself in cultivated gardens. The name comes from the spur-shaped tips of the flowers  that are said to resemble eagle claws (Latin: aquila = eagle). Spreading that flamboyant plant around the garden is as simple as deadheading the seed pods to dry on the ground in the bed. In one of the photos, I caught an amazing assortment of fauna:  iris, wild blue phlox and a dot of red in the backyard that turned out to be a lone poppy in full bloom amid the buds. As for the rest of the beds?  Try salvia, coreopsis, white star flower, the last of the woodruff, yellow leopard's bane, coral bells, hardy geranium, the last of the lungwort, false indigo. . .(pause, deep breath) I know I'm missing something.

What a difference a day makes. The weather this week may have been hard on the mood, but the garden thrives on it.