The Warmest Day of Spring (so far)

It got up to 89 degrees yesterday.  We were in and out all day.  K.J. helped do some raking and played with Heidi, then Larry took him to my parents' house while I worked on getting the leaves out of the beds and such.

When I ran out of energy for gardening, I took some photos.  This is a clematis that I forgot to trim back.  It seems to be doing OK.

I did trim this one back.  I love the blue flowers it gets.

I didn't get these leaves raked until today.

Larry got our two rain barrels put up.  The peonies are up!

Soon, there will be lots of color.

The sedums have nice little mounds this year.  They were pretty small last year.

The bush clematis is coming up.

The grape hyacinths are blooming!

Each time I go out, there are new things coming up, and there is lots of growth on the plants that have been up.

We're leaving the front yard, and going to the east side of the house.

The rudbeckias begged from a lady are growing.

These pasque flowers are different from the ones I have had longer, as shown in the previous photos, are a different color, and bloom a little later.

That little plant in the back corner between the cage with variegated grass behind it, and the cement slab the garbage cans are on is a hellebore.  When I planted it, I felt guilty for it, because it didn't seem like a good spot for it.  It gets shaded by other plants when it's hot, but it's not a handy place to water, and this spring, it's only been watered once.

It is doing better than some of the other hellebores.  I looked at some posts from a year ago last week, because I was looking to see what all was up and blooming.  I was surprised to see the blooms were yellow last year.  I wonder why they are darker colored this year.

Larry cut these grasses down today, and I got the leaves raked out of the flower bed.

Larry cleaned out the carport. He had the tool holder all torn apart.  Look how nice and straight he put the tools in!

I was still using a couple, so when I put them away, I did not have the patience to try to get them straight.  Hey, I didn't even get all of the leaves off of whatever that tool is called.

This is what the sky looked like when I quit for the night.

I'm guessing they will be coming this week to cut the tree down.

I worked on flower beds at church today.  We had a servant event, and different groups of folks went out and did different things.  Some did cleaning at church.  I didn't think to ask for a group to help with the flower beds ahead of time, but there were some who were helping get lunch ready, and saw me out there, so they came out to help.  It feels good that we got last year's dead stuff out.  I am in the process of having people sign up to "adopt" different areas for the season.  Even those who have adopted them, hadn't cleaned them out yet.  They will have a nice surprise.

Larry and I moved the tubs out from under the tree today, so that the tree crew will have room to work.  We also took the tarps off of pots and things in the carport, and took the lavenders and such out of the egress window well.  Larry did most of the arranging of things on the deck.  It's looking good.  I did more raking, and dug out some plants to give some co-workers.  I ran out of steam before I did last night, so I'm in finishing up this post.

Have a great week!