Laughing Dragon Garden Update: And So, it Became Spring!

Yesterday — March 20th — was the Spring Equinox, marking the formal arrival of Spring, here in the northern hemisphere.

This morning, the sun shone weakly from behind some humidity haze, and the 38 degree (4C for you metric folks), an indication on the thermometer was a reminder that Spring is only here "on paper," at least so far.

Daffodils in my neighbor's yard... she's on the "sunny side" of our street

Sometimes I get a bit weary of writing "serious" blog posts, and instead prefer to take a walk around outside and "take in" our surroundings.

It's a healthy thing to do during these strange and unpredictable times where it feels like you just never quite know what global debacle you're going to wake up to, tomorrow.

Nature offers a lovely healing counterpoint to that!

Getting back to the point at hand, spring seems to be quite "late" this year.

Our official garden mascot, catching some rays!

Started the walk in the actual Laughing Dragon Garden, which is really just our vegetable patch, here in our little urban homestead.

That turned out to be a bit tricky, because large areas seemed to have turned into "muddy swamp," unlike anything we have seen in the past. Certainly, it has rained a lot this winter, but it is also worrisome that (potentially) some of the underground runoff from up-slope has changed its flow and is now dumping here.

We'll have to wait and see... but working in mud is not an enjoyable experience!

Happy little "rescue pansy."

I was happy to see that one of the little "rescue pansies" was happily blooming away, showing its extreme resilience.

These were transplants from the back yard, where they had managed to self-seed in the lawn, from a hanging basket!

So, with nothing doing inside the fenced off vegetable patch, it was time to wander the rest of the garden.

Spotted the year's first dandelion in the lawn! Sure, most people think of dandelions as "invasive pests," but it's actually a great utility plant... ALL parts of it can be used!

I looked back on some of the photos from years past, and we seem to be almost two weeks "behind," at this point.

Seems like we should be out there, mowing the lawn... but the grass is barely showing any signs of life. Nature still appears to be sleeping, to a large degree.

Some of our tulips are making a BIT of an effort...

Something seems "not quite right," like a large number of things have the appearance of being almost dead, rather than ready to explode forth with energy and new growth.

For example, our hellebores are normally quite thick and lush, starting already in mid-February, or even sooner. This year, they look rather anemic and tired, and there are far fewer than we have seen in recent memory. And the dark purple ones are almost non-existent, this year...

Looking around their space, animal damage, perhaps? I didn't think deer touched hellebores... maybe our bunnies have been eating at the roots?

Our sad little cluster of hellebores...

Growing in the same area, the candytufts are doing their usual late winter into early spring bloom, proving their hardiness.

Not much around them seems to be alive.

That even goes for the ever-invasive buttercups we have been trying to eliminate from that bed for almost 10 years, now. Whereas they are very pretty and cheerful with their yellow flowers, they are also extremely invasive, and will take over everything by strangulation, if left alone to do so. Maybe we finally got to them!

Happy candytufts!

I wish I could report something exciting like "seeing the first butterfly of the year"... but the only sign of insect life I spotted was this fly, enjoying a sunbreak among the flowers...

Enjoying the sunshine...

The forsythia — always a harbinger of spring — is starting to sparingly bloom, although large parts of both our bushes look like they are not setting flowers, at all.

Still, it's hard to resist the bright yellow against that clear blue sky!

Can you spot the tiny "passenger?" So yes, there WAS another sign of insect life...

Out, facing the street, we have one "early" rhododendron that always treats us to a wealth of early garden color.

It's definitely having a go at it this year, albeit not with the same intensity as in years past. It may be that we will need to get to the somewhat encroaching cedar trees nearby... they have grown very large, and are blocking quite a bit of the sun.

One of our prettiest blooming bushes!

Another early spring bloomer is our Star Magnolia, which also seems to be running a bit late this year.

The buds are amazing and beautiful in their own right, with their furry pods that start forming already in early February. Actual leaves on the bush don't set until much later.

Star magnolia bloom, emerging

This next one is a little further along. In another two weeks or so, the entire tree will be covered with starry delicate pink to white blooms!

While they are beautiful to look at, they don't actually have much natural scent.

Another star magnolia, emerging

Just outside the vegetable garden fence grows our aging apricot tree, which is also one of the earliest things in the spring garden to set flowers.

Alas, not much to see there... a few solitary flowers here and there, but quite a few buds in evidence. They just need a little more time.

Don't we all?

A solitary apricot blossom

All in all, it will probably be another couple of weeks before there is full "spring life" in the garden.

By then, we're also hopeful that the sogginess in the Laughing Dragon vegetable garden area will have dried out a bit so we can get the beds ready for planting... working in mud is not much fun!

I'll leave you with this artsy sun-and-shade close-up of the trumpet section of our solitary blooming daffodil!

Inside a daffodil!

Hoping to find a little more time for garden (and other) blogging this year. No promises, though... we'll see how it goes!

More updates as gardening season unfolds!

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