Springs further changes...

Spring brought many surprises not all of them well received. But one that came in the disguise of spruce needle rust cast.  I spent a few weeks having a pity party about the lose of privacy that they provide from the front of the property and neighbors driving by. Then the designer in me kicked in and I decided that seeing that the option is to leave it looking like this picture I spent several hours the past couple weeks not only pruning the affected branches, dead trees and then raking up the accumulation of spore covered dead needles.

If you ignore the Peter Pan moment going on you will see that perhaps this is actually going to create a whole different depth...one of which I am happily going to embrace.

This reminded me of what Karen from Quarry garden and stain glass went through when she had to limb up her spruce.

The challenge that could be interesting is that this front bed will actually rotate through waves of primary colours of blue, red, yellow, orange and white.  Behind it is a bed that has softer pastels shades of blues, purples and pinks.

 This is a Rhododendron that sits at the end of the perennial bed behind the pond.

There are still a couple small piles of needles to pick up and then edging around joining this with the perennial bed to the right of the Rhododendron  I have a few ideas of what to do under these trees which I will share in future posts.

Tulip time Holland Michigan

Happy Mothers day....

I thought I would share with you some of the photos from the past week here in Holland.

For the past 10 days or so its been Holland Michigan's Tulip time. People come from all over the world to enjoy this festival.  Its been a great year this year with the tulips starting to bloom only a couple days before everyone started to arriving with more and more opening up and begging for attention.

There are miles and miles of tulips planted all over the town. They line both sides of the streets in all colours and types.

This is out at Veldeer Tulip farm. Fields of every tulip there is.

I thought I would attempt a video. 

Arn't these beautiful and so very different from any I already have planted at home.

I thought that perhaps some of these on the North east side which is where I have a lot of  "pinks" blooming throughout the year.

These photos some how lose there focus when enlarged... These whites were actually "fringed" and looked quite interesting.

Here's a bed showing the signs that help you identify them.

Bi-colored tulip... 

Here's the Interact club of Holland New Tech.. Holland Rotary's first ever Interact club.

We are taking part in the Saturday Tulip Time parade. It rained. It hailed and the wind blew cold for the full two hours! We blew bubbles and sang and danced. 

We meet every Tuesday. These are 14 to 18 year old's who give up their lunch to plan what next to do to help out throughout their community.  We've done several community projects around Holland through out this past year. Its been a real privileged to work with this great bunch of teens. There are actually over 20 in the club. A lot of the members were in bands, marching with athletic groups and also doing the Dutch dancing.We are hoping to raise money and then actually go with either another Interact club or with the Holland Rotary club to Honduras or the Dominican Republic to install them. To raise money for water filters is a wonderful thing. But, to actually go and install them will be life changing for these members. 

So from Holland Michigan and the end of another Tulip Time...

I wish all of you a very wonderful Mothers day...

Im now linking this with May Gardens Bloom day to share Holland Michigans Tulips with the rest of you..... Enjoy!

http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/

Frolicking bulbs -May 8th

The weather has brought the garden out with a bang. Blooms everywhere. Im getting up every morning and walking through the garden to see what is new. I've even been taking some pictures and then comparing the flowers on my return at the end of the day. My Mermaid is being a bit more modest then usual.

The Tulips continue to change their looks with the additional orange and then yellow blooms adding to the clusters and then the blooming creeping phlox.

Something bright and cheery at the beginning of our walkway.

The double flowering daffodils along the rock wall.

These are in a separate bed along the north west end of our house with the Peris and the Rhododendron and Sweet mountain laurel.

Dwarf Iris at the front of the driveway. These will fade and be over taken with the foliage of the  orange Ditch Lily's.

I love the boldness of this deep blue Iris sitting in with all the pastel yellow. 

Where it actually came from I do not know or perhaps I missed it blooming last year somehow.

I would actually love to find some more and add into this border.

I think I showed you this beautiful large pottery pot that I got at Jonkers in Holland Michigan 

It actually badly cracked and so I picked it up for next to nothing with the sole idea of laying it on its and making it look like the hen's and chick's are spilling out of it.

Then to add repetition and balance I added this similar pot on the opposite side of the driveway. 

I've yet to plant it up. I will plant it with plants that will contrast and fit in nicely with what will be blooming on this corner of the bed towards the beginning of June.

This will likely be the last post that will show the daffodils for sure as the temperature has been up into the 80's this past week although cooling down considerably for the next few days. We are even expecting rain which is good as we have the usual spring irrigation issues to work out.

Thanks for stopping by and walking my garden... 

Come often as its changing rapidly...

Im linking up with Fertilizer Friday .....even if a wee bit late!

http://www.tootsietime.com/search/label/Fertilizer%20Friday~~Flaunt%20Those%20Flowers

May 1 Surprises

All of a sudden Spring has arrived. It is amazing what three days over 80 degrees did for our garden.
I went out and got lost in the mulching....lifting my head three days later I grabbed my camera to share the wonder that is happening in my garden. First thing I did was to bring the Mermaid outside to take up her post.

Although I appreciate the pastels of spring I can't help being drawn to the bright colours of these tulips

They are in the front beds on either side of the driveway happily saying good bye as I leave for work or greeting me as I drive in at night. 

 Fiddle heads are wonderful sauteed but I just couldn't bring myself to sacrifice any this year.

  Grape hyacinth is something I haven't always liked but I have really grown to love as they spread and     carpet  areas of this garden.

This is a great example of how I try to place contrasting textures of plants. "Brutes to dainty".

Isn't this Ginger a beauty. Its nestled very quietly at a point of the pond where sitting on a bench you can admire it. Not quite in the White or Moon garden but adjacent to it on its own.. The White or Moon garden was thought of because from the vantage point of our upper deck where we sit and over look the pond in the evening the white flowers or variegated foliage will stand out at night. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I could add to the "Moon" aspect of the White garden?

Marsh Marigolds are stunning at the moment. They are actually in the White garden..But, I figure its okay because they will be past blooming by the time the rest of the White garden gets going. I love the glossy green of their foliage even once the blooms are spent.

This Epimedium is stunning especially with the Golden Nettle as ground cover all around it.

It seems as if in the past ten days the garden has burst forth with an abundance of colour, contrasting textures , shapes and forms. Im eagerly waiting to see how all the dividing and moving things around will look compared with all that I added last year and have to add to it tomorrow. 

Holland Michigan is now enjoying our "Tulip Time"... streets are lined with Tulips and fields are all waving colourful heads beckoning tourists to stop and admire. Street performers will be out along with the traditional wooden cloggers all proud of their Dutch heritage. Its an amazing place to be. Why not come on over and join in all the fun....

I hope you have enjoyed your walk in my garden. Please let me know you dropped by.

 PS... I received another wonderful surprise May 1... I was expecting to go Sunday and pick up my number two daughter who has just spent the past year living over in Australia  But, Bear who turned 50 on May 1 actually spent his day driving to Chicago and back to pick her and her beau up so they could surprise me.

I do love surprises.

http://www.tootsietime.com/

Daff's a blooming..

Spring has been slow to arrive this year.... It seems everyone is saying the same thing. No one wants to be grudge mother nature's bounty of plentiful rain for the Great Lakes except now its in excess and basements are flooding, roads are closed. The rain has greened up the lawn and brought out the earlier spring flowers but warmth is needed if we are going to get any tulips in time for Holland Tulip Time festival which starts May 5th.
At Mermaid in Frog Holland I am thankful for the abundance of Daffodils that opened up and spread their cheerful faces all over the garden. I did manage to get out and lift and divide them. Instead of the "plunk" "plunk" of 10 or so bulbs every 4 feet that the past owner had placed them in I have moved them around the beds to suit my individual taste.

Primula's are a spring time favorite of mine after living over in the UK for years. There were none in this garden so I added just 5 clumps. I particularly liked the ones of multiple colours. I picked out five pots and have placed them in the west bed together hoping they will grow into a bigger splash to be seen from the kitchen window.

I still have Hellebore's looking fairly decent although with the predicted 70 degree and up weather this next week Im sure they won't be looking this good for long. The warmer weather Im sure will have my garden flourishing right before my eyes. I've been out weeding and edging and still moving things about while I can. I hope to get the last of the remaining mulch from the fall on the beds around the house. The mulch has been worth its cost in the reduced amount of weeding. I've also cleaned out the pond and sprayed the rocks down. rearranged the rocks and made sure the liner was covered. I look forward to the new blooms and huge advances happening in the garden weekly now that warmer weather is forecasted.
No frogs as yet! perhaps the warmer weather will bring them out as well as the tulips.
This is all from Mermaid at Frog Hollow for this week...
I look forward to seeing who's walking my garden and getting back in touch with my gardening friends.
Im linking up with Outdoor Wednesday again...




http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

Oooops! Please accept these flowers as my apology....

So for several posts as some of you know I could not get the photos to enlarge other then the first one. Last night I went in through Google rather then Explorer and it dawned on me just by chance that the photos were all enlarging! I then spent considerable time going back and enlarging all the past post photos...Say that five times fast!. I also realized at that time that the post "Tulum" had never actually posted although I did have it scheduled.....  I rescheduled it... it still didn't go!. I've finally gotten it to publish. Then I noticed that the Ice Sculpture post resent... I could give you a whole list of why these things happen to me but they will only sound like excuses. Instead I will share my latest creative endeavor... I took part in a floral display workshop this morning put on by the Holland Garden Club.  A very well spent $10.00 as that was the workshop and all supplies.
I am trying to smile and think myself lucky that we haven't as yet had all the ice and snow that others have face the past few days. However when one even remembers their umbrella and still ends up absolutely soaking wet from the near horizontal rains that all pelting down outside...It takes effort to remember that the rain is a "life giving blessing"...  Then I read Glenda's post from Edmonton Alberta where she states she still has 3 feet of snow.. a shiver runs over me not from the damp clothes and I smile and feel "lucky".

Hopefully I have fixed the "glitches" and I will have this working right for the future with nice enlarged photos that one can actually see!

Stay warm for those of you with snow... Stay dry for those of us with the rain...Sunshine is coming..It is!
I know it is.........

Tulum Mexico 2013

One of the day trips we took was a day to Tulum for half a day and then the other half was over to the

Xel Ha park. When I came through these ruins 10 years ago the guides were amazing with all the information that they gave us about the ruins and what each of the buildings were thought to be used for. Our guide this time was far more interested in trying to get us to buy a parchment paper which I'm sure was from some relative!

Even though there was a lack of guidance from our guide.... I remembered some of the buildings from before and was able to pass on the history that I did remember to Bear.

One of the things I did notice was the vast difference in the vegetation around the ruins. It seemed to me that the jungle was certainly growing in around the ruins.

It was a mild day so the iguana's were not out in the freakish numbers as they were ten years ago either! I remember thinking it was a bit like an Alfred Hitchcock movie back then!

A view of the beautiful beach and the gorgeous water. We didn't swim as we knew we were headed for Xel Ha and it wasn't hot enough to need a dip to cool down. However, I'm sure that on a much normal hotter day that that water would of been wonderfully refreshing.

Here is the shot of the spikes growing up the tree. It reminded me at the time of something perhaps would of been used as a trap in a Harrison Ford movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark!

While the guide was busy trying to talk all the tourists into buying a parchment from his cousin I was off looking at the flowers and snapping pictures... I also forgot to look where I was standing and had a swarm of black ants run up my leg which started to bite and it burned far worse then I remember ant bites feeling ever. The bites then grow into red welts adding to the already attractiveness of the head cold!

These men are some 20 feet in the air and that top is spinning! It was a neat sight to see and had I had my wits about me instead of trying hard not to scratch the ant bites I would of thought to of taken a video of this for you.

I guess this means you will have to go and see the Mayan for yourselves.

Thanks for dropping by and visiting my blog. Again I promise to start blogging about

gardening and plants again soon.. things are coming up and some things are even starting to bloom!

more on that in the next day or two.

I hope all of you had a meaningful Easter and are enjoying Spring break.