The New Front Garden Lives

It's blossoming out there. Like Spring itself, the front garden re-do has felt like a long time getting here, and like Spring it's still got a long way to go before it's really arrived. But this morning I caught up with what's been blooming, what got planted and what survived Tuesday's hail storm.

My gloves survived. This was some hail storm. I was at home, fortunately, so I managed to dash out and cover the peach trees with pillow cases so they didn't get completely trashed. It sounded like someone was dumping a load of gravel on the roof. Some of the leafy greens -- the lettuces, sorrel, spinach -- got shredded. Good thing they grow quickly. Quite a few blueberry flowers got knocked off the bushes... they won't be replaced this year, so the bumper crop I was already preserving in my mind might end up being quite humble again.

But back to today, and back to the front. The quirky hellebores are packing up for the season, making seeds while everything else is making buds.

Last weekend I planted the current hedge. With a little help from my friend.

They are happy as clams, soon to be a gorgeous green gash along the side of the path.

We had a change of plans about the passionfruit planter, and it's now sitting along the top of the shed, planted with guavas -- which are not as tropical as they sound. God forbid we'd get -5 frosts, but if we did, we'd still have guavas.

It still looks a bit barren from on high. But give it a couple more weeks, and it will be an oasis out there. I put the first coat of paint on the shed today, second coat tomorrow. Kaye has been busy planting and shoring up the area at the bottom of the hedgerow, soon to be home to a rambling rose. Then there's the old ivy bank to turn into a vertical herb and salad garden... and we'll be done.

Meanwhile, out the back, there is some quiet but very exciting action:

Violets transplanted from Margaret's garden a few weeks ago happily flowering on the top terrace.

One of two cranberries that will tumble over the shaded wall and give us some tart fruit to go with turkey.

That funny little bulge is a fig! YES. It's from the plant in a pot, and I have great hopes for it. There are no leaves or fruit yet on the big fig, but I reckon it's shaping up to be the year of the fig in this little garden.