What's happening now

This headline should really read “What WAS happening a few days ago.” Blogger was down for much of the end of the week so I couldn’t post this, but I hope you enjoy it now. Sorry for the delay.
Sometimes I feel like everything I write on this blog is old news because my zone 5 garden is so far behind so many of those of my readers. I can’t believe that some blogs have pictures of tomatoes on the vine this week!
The situation seems to be particularly bad this year, although I’m not sure if that’s because the weather really has been worse than normal or if it’s because we had a lovely spring last year so things are slow in comparison to last year when they were probably ahead of schedule.
I planted climbing rose CanCan in front of the downspout in the front of the house. I was so upset when I found out there was no option to putting that downspout smack dab in the middle of the front of the house, although I have to say it doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would. Cancan is developed by Bill Radler who created the Knock-out rose series and grows to about 10 feet so I have hopes that it will do well in this place and not eat the house.

 
Some of the daffodils are blooming. Is there any cheerier flower than a daffodil? OK, maybe daises, but daffs are close.

 
Other varieties have yet to bloom. I should have daffodil blooms for at least the next two to three weeks.

 
I was thrilled to see the wonderful purple spikes of ‘Blue Angel’ hosta poking up. Certainly a favorite in my garden.

 
The Serviceberry tree has fuzzy little buds getting ready to bloom. The Serviceberry trees at work usually bloom four to seven days before the one at my house does so I usually have a little warning. My mother-in-law bought this tree for us the second summer after we bought the house, so it’s been in the garden for eight years now. It’s a lovely little tree.

 
Dicentra ‘Gold Heart’ is coming up. I think everyone should grow this plant. It’s just amazing.

 
The mini greenhouse is full of plants: some plugs from the Yahoo plant co-op, some from last year that I overwintered in pots heeled into the ground and, believe it or not, I finally potted up the poor amaryllis bulbs that were forgotten in the basement.

 
There are a lot of plants by the garage waiting for a spot in the ground. Three beautiful Hydrangea ‘Little Lime’ are waiting, along with some roses I overwintered (again in pots in the ground) and a few other random things.

 
They back yard looks like a graffiti artist attacked it. That’s the rough layout for a path and new beds that I have planned. I’m not at all looking forward to doing the hardscaping, but paying someone to do it just isn’t in the budget so that too is going to be a (back-breaking) DIY project. I hope to complete it by Memorial Day but I suspect that, like a lot of my DIY projects, that is a totally unrealistic deadline. (There is nothing like taking a picture of your own space to realize what a dump it looks like!)

 
And very exciting news: The cable railings are finally finished on the deck! I was going to do a post on installing these because Mr. Much More Patient did the honors, but honestly, it’s a pretty high-level DIY project that is a bit more complicated than a post on a blog would cover. They are however, sailboat lifelines. No seriously, they really ARE sailboat lifelines. There is NO difference and we actually bought the materials for this project from a company that sells both marine stainless steel products and has an architectural line. By the way, if you’re looking for something like this, email me for the contact information. Anyway, since Mr. MMP has experience with lifelines, he figured this out pretty quickly, but it was still a three-weekend project just because drilling all the holes and cutting all the wire took a long time. I’m happy it’s finished now. All we have to do now is touch up some of the stain on the deck and pergola and install the stair lights and the deck is finished!

 
So as Al Roker would say, that’s what’s happening in my neck of the woods. What’s up in yours?