Puppy Challenges in the Garden

Meet Finnegan, mischief maker!

We brought him home in April at eight weeks old, the cutest bundle of fur, with curiosity in his eyes!

As puppies do, he investigates everything with his mouth. Things allowed (food, toys, treats, big brother Jake, mom and dad) and those things not allowed (everything else!).

When we first took him outside, he discovered that a big world was out the door — and that there were a million things to pick up, tear, chase and chomp. Chomping on everything in the grass, along the path, in the planting beds! Now four months old, he has put more things in his mouth than Joey or Jake ever did in their stints as puppies.

  

Since I had not yet begun to install plants in our re-designed back yard, I decided to go with plants that were puppy-safe.

 

A Simple Vignette on a Day for Remembering

We've always been rather low-key on Memorial Day, celebrating quietly, usually only with the three of us. This year there will only be Greg and I, but I wanted to acknowledge the holiday in some way.

Thoughts of Pansies for a Spring Table

"Pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts." ~ William Shakespeare

 

The First Blossoms in the Spring Garden

Hello and welcome to the spring garden! My favorite season in the garden is spring, with its wonderful exuberance of shapes, colors and textures that is especially welcome after the challenges of winter. For spring blossoms I rely on trees and shrubs, carpeted beneath by perennial bulbs.

The photos below are roughly in their order of bloom, spanning the end of February through the end of March.

Cercis canadensis (eastern redbud)

Hopping into Spring

I can always tell that spring has truly arrived when I see bunnies hopping through my garden! They have already begun nibbling my flowers and the fresh green shoots growing through the mulch.