It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Ah, spring. Time for wearing the new gardening clogs:



and daffodils:



We're worried about one of our rhododendrons (rhododendra?). Here is the healthy one:



and the not so healthy one:



We might need to take it down. :-(

The outdoors is dangerous!

Last weekend, the high winds brought down part of one of our big trees. Luckily it fell between the new blueberries and the asparagus bed, and not right on top of one of them.




And then I caught poison ivy, and two days later I pulled a tick out of my side! I may never go outdoors again!

But, this may convince me to - my score from the Dutchess County Master Gardener Plant Sale:





The rhododendrons are still going strong, and I'm trying to notice details more, so a close up is in order as well.





The columbine I planted last year is looking well. So deep and dark! If only I could remember the name...

Lots of purple

The money plant / silver dollar plant is still going strong, and the rhododendrons are blooming, I'm amazed at how they are practically the same exact color!



And I am *so* excited that the irises are *finally* blooming! These blue and white ones we brought with us from Cold Spring. I did our landlord a favor and thinned her iris beds. :-)



These yellow ones were here when we bought the house. Mrs. Pampalone stopped by one day soon after we moved in and told us these were award winning irises, I should have asked her if *she* won the awards, or if just the plants did before she acquired them.



I wanted to show you the lily of the valley "patch" that came to us from my Mom's friend Barb. This is where I took the shots for Christa's birthday post.



This is something growing on the hill that was here when we moved in. Is this some kind of honeysuckle? It does smell sweet.





And again I'm thrilled with the silky dogwood growth. :-)

It's too nice out to blog

The grape hyacinths on the east side of the house are in full bloom now. Still waiting for the ones in the front beds to bloom. They'll look great with the new daffodils I planted if they ever catch up!

The hosta and Steve irises are significantly bigger now!

The myrtle is blooming really well this year. I think it's because we lost a big piece of the rhododendron that used to shade this area.

I love this flowering shrub with it's petite white flowers. We actually have two of these - I don't know what they are, they were here when we bought the house. One is in full bloom now, and the other hasn't even started! I don't know why they're not blooming at the same time, but it's nice that they'll be staggered and we'll get to enjoy them even longer.

I'm so excited there are buds on the rhododendron. It had a terrible fungus last year (we saw many others in the neighborhood with the same problem), and we had to cut out big sections and spray, but it seems like it's bouncing back this year.

I am (im)patiently waiting for the azaleas to bloom! We aggressively pruned them last year, and I'm hoping they'll be phenomenol this year! I'll have to do a post when they are in full bloom and show you the before and afters.