Springtime in the Our Garden

I know a lot of states are starting to open up since the coronavirus is slowing down and we are too... slowly.  This week, dentists started working again and so are some doctor's offices but not restaurants, hair salons, or nonessential stores. Mostly everyone is still staying home.  It's so boring.  Bruce went golfing twice since golf courses opened up a couple weeks ago.  With the weather getting so nice, it's hard to stay home.  The city is trying to discourage people from going to parks by taping off play equipment, picnic tables and closing all parking lots, thus avoiding overcrowding.  Bruce and Lauren have been going to Alki beach to jog on Sundays and then I'll walk along the path while they run but it is so crowded!  I wear my mask because even though it's outside, it's hard to keep distance from people.  It's almost easier to just stay home than to try to go out in public and deal with all the issues. 

Since we're home so much now, I decided to do a post on all the flowers around our house because this is such a beautiful time of year and I've never taken the time to post about our yard.  I posted photos of our garden in Idaho because we had two vegetable gardens, a lovely rose garden, lilac bushes, peonies, not to mention the fruit trees.  It was fun taking photos of all the ripening fruit.  Since we've moved here, I've basically ignored our yard except for the wisteria, of course, that blooms this time of year. 

I've even been taking photos of other wisteria around the neighborhood when we go out for our evening walk. 

This time of year, we are always going here and there and everywhere, including Mariner games and getting together with friends.  We just aren't home that much since we moved to Seattle.  Well, we're home now and I decided to finally take notice of all our beautiful plants.  Bruce works in the yard a lot since it's his favorite past time and our current yard is just big small enough to enjoy and maintain while keeping up with our busy social life.  Besides the wisteria on our front porch, we also have a colorful little rock garden in the front yard.

We've been adding to it each year with colorful ground coverings, as you can see. 

                       

We kept our geraniums in the garage over the winter so now they are enjoying the sun in this springtime weather on our front porch

The geraniums don't get that much attention when the wisteria blooms but they'll look good all summer long in the front to welcome visitors if we ever get visitors to our house again.

We also have more potted plants in the back on the deck that we kept in the garage over the winter and are doing well.

We added a few color spots to the geraniums to liven them up a bit and now they are loving the sunny days on the deck.

We have two areas on the deck for potted plants so the railing does not come right up to the big glass window of the living room.  It's a perfect spot for some colorful plants on the deck where the stairs go down into the basement.

Here are some other scenes from the backyard.  Of course, the rhododendron thrives since it's the state flower.  Every yard must have one.  We had one in Idaho that struggled to survive  because it was so hot in the summer.  Rhododendrons love our cool and mostly cloudy weather.

Here's a colorful blue bush that I don't know what it is but it's very healthy. 

Our rose bushes just started to bloom last week, too.  We'll be able to enjoy them all summer and they're so colorful when you look out our windows.

Here's behind the rose bushes where Bruce has a garden with some tomato plants and he plans on also planting some zucchini and cucumbers.  (We still need to pressure wash that wall.)

Here are the plantings of the zucchini and cucumber (on the left), along with some herbs we're growing for our summer herb garden.

While I'm at it, I'll show you our two orchids that are still blooming that I got as a gift after my hip replacement over a year ago and for my knee replacement last August.  We can't believe how well they are both doing.  Below is the one we got in August and it still looks great.

And this one we got in February 2019 and look how good it looks!

We are really enjoying our orchids.  My Mother's Day flowers are still looking good, too.

I mean, if you have "stay-at-home" orders from your governor, it really helps to have lots of colorful plants around to cheer you up.  And it helps that it's spring with everything blooming.  What are you doing to enjoy your spring?