Green and Gorgeous

Yesterday, on my way to the garden center of a 'big box' store to hunt down Boston ferns for the front porch, I stopped to buy a card at a chain drug store in my neighborhood.

At the entrance were these beautiful ferns...........FOR SALE!

I was jumping for joy at such perfection ~ even dh agreed they were gorgeous.

The store manager told me they arrived Thursday and were selling like wild fire. I'm not surprised because they are huge, healthy, and grown right here at a local nursery which of course is a good thing. They were $15 ea., which is $5 more than the BB store, however there's no comparison..............when I checked there later I found them smaller, droopy, many fronds broken, with a pale greyish green look as if crying out for fertilizer.........and a good long, slow drink!

Now I'm anxious to clean up the front porch. With the wrens gone, and hopefully the purple finches staying out of these lovely ferns (they are such messy birds), as soon as the pollen has eased up I can get to work. We had so much oak pollen falling yesterday it was hard to breathe outside. Hopefully showers during the night have dampened it down and cleared the air somewhat.

Have to show you my trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) which burst into bloom a couple of days ago on the arbor leading to the back garden. The orange flowers are profuse this year and will surely attract the hummingbirds............and bees, but that's good because we need more bees for pollination.

In the Southeastern U.S., trumpet vine is sometimes considered a weed and is quite invasive if not pruned. Mine was pruned back to the ground a few years ago when the house was painted and this is the best year for blooms since.

The plant to the left of the gate is a climbing rose, John Cabot, a hardy Canadian. Also pruned back and mulched over the Winter, it's now growing rapidly with our warm temperatures this week, and starting to bloom. I keep white mini lights up year round on the fence and arbor as they look pretty and bring a little romance to the night garden. (Click photo to enlarge).

Another view of the front entry and porch. Our little fountain decided to quit bubbling and we have purchased a replacement which we plan to assemble this week ~ hope it's easier this time around ~ I remember it took hours to get all the internal parts together, especially with instructions in a vague interpretation of English!

We enjoy sitting on the porch and listening to the water splashing. The current fountain will be moved somewhere in the garden and used as a birdbath, which is what it's become anyway..........even catch squirrels stopping by for a drink now and then.

This warm, sunny weather is causing everything in the garden to start bursting forth. Each morning as the dawn chorus breaks into song, still in my robe, coffee mug in hand, I tiptoe around the dewy garden to view the beauty of the new day. Those of you who garden know the feeling when you see all those little miracles pushing up through the earth. Perhaps my love affair with Autumn is waning a little ~ have to admit Spring just gets better every year.

Off to grab clogs and tiptoe through the wet grass right now. Hope to have new garden treasures to share with you later.