Spring has sprung - well almost

We drove to Oakland to see Dahlia yesterday.

What a beautiful drive it was. The day was sunny and bright with blue skies and only puffy white clouds to be seen. The landscape is greener than Ireland - even the cows looked clean and posed. The latest "Clo" billboards read "Support your local cow." and "Go ahead, milk my day."
Silly, but always fun to see.

Things are in bloom - I love it. As I showered this morning I looked out the window and noticed that the plum tree is covered with white flowers. Now the plum tree is BIG so you'd think I'd notice it right away but it's situated in such a way that you can only see it at certain angles from the bathrooms and from one corner of the kitchen.

I've always disliked the way our house is laid out so that the beauties of the backyard are not visible from any room in the house except the bathrooms. We added a beautiful sliding glass door to one of the back bedrooms so now you can see the yard from there - we call it the Garden Room. But even then, unless you go into the bedroom you don't see the yard.

Some people have visited my house many times and not even noticed we have a big back yard.

Next will be the crabapple trees. We have a pink one in the backyard that always reminds me of a '30's tap dancer with it 's fluffy pink top and skinny legs. The one in the front yard is white - who knew there were so many varieties of crabapple?

The Japanese maples are beginning to unfurl their leaves. The two in the front yard we chose because one gets its leaves in the spring in red and then turns green later in the year and the other gets its leaves in the spring in green and then turns red later. We have a backyard maple but I don't remember which way it goes. I do know that at some point it is almost purple.

The daffodils have been blooming for a while. I usually buy a bag of bulbs and scatter them around the front yard - either daffodils or tulips. I do the planting in November - but I don't do the planting any more, I do the buying and then Morey plants them for me. It's among the many things I can't do in the yard.

I hope we get a display of California poppies. They come and go as they please - sometimes in carpets of orange color and sometimes just a few little clumps. One of the most wonderful experiences I ever had in my life was to drive out to the desert in Southern California in the spring and see miles and miles of poppies. Now I know where the scene in the "Wizard of Oz" came from where Dorothy is running through fields and fields of poppies and falls asleep. They didn't have that effect on me. But OH! it was sooo wonderful.

There were also streaks of different colors on the hills - purple, yellow, white - like a giant paintbrush had streaked them. It was never as lavish again as that first year but certainly always wonderful. That is one of the things I miss about Southern California. There aren't many.

I usually go to at least one tour of gardens - many of which are offered here in Sonoma County.
I love to see what people do - sometimes in the tiniest plot of land. I'm less impressed with the people who have thrown tons of money and experts at an "estate". Although I can't say I don't like those gardens - they just have less joi d'vive.

It's one of the blessings of living in Sonoma County - the love of gardening. We have tons of nurseries, some with very narrow offerings - Japanese maples only; palms only and one with flesh eating plants only.

When I did home health nursing, I would love to stop at different nurseries inevetibly coming home with tubs of this or that that was on sale or caught my eye. I must have 50 rose bushes now and poor Morey (well, not so poor, he really likes doing it) does the fertilizing and pruning with the help of our gardener.

I'm a scatter shot gardener. I buy what attracts me in the nurseries and plonk them down in any spot that seems to fill the bill. Oh I started with a general plan but often the plants don't like the soil, the sun or lack of it, or our haphazard care. But the survivors encourage me to buy more of the same.

Someone once told me that when you move to a new area, look and see how the public buldings and parks are landscaped and you will know what survives and does the best in that area. It certainly helped to know that when we moved here because it wasn't at all like Southern California where we lived before. There I could plant geraniums and they grew like weeds but here they are more delicate and die off easily first frost. There I planted bouganvillea and it too covered walls and fences with bold color - but it doesn't do well here. For which Morey is grateful as they have wicked thorns and he, as trimmer, would get clawed to pieces.

I am grateful to my tried and true plants who come through drought and floods and keep on blooming. The little primroses I pick up at the drug store are out there now in full flower and I plan to get some more. I am a rescuer of "old" plants too. If I see a counter with offerings that have passed their bloom or look tired I snap them up because I know with a little attention they will revive and flourish. OK so I'm cheap too. I never buy annuals. Damn, if I'm going to plant them I want them there forever.

So that's Helga's guide to gardening. I'm not like Annecia who takes classes and reads books and is out there every day (well I would be if it weren't for my back). But I'm happy with my garden and when I finally move I won't come back because I won't want to see what has happened to it.

It's not like Los Angeles - there we had a pool - which I still miss and the gardening was around the periphery of the pool. Not as much or as intense - I didn't have the time then to pursue my interest. Now I have the time but not the physical ability. Who knew?

Early this week I think I over-exercised on my equipment and the pain was pretty bad the next day. I haven't had pain like that in a long time and I was frightened because there have been times when it was months before the pain let up - or I even had to have surgeries. But fortunately it was only a couple of days and I was back to my lower level of pain. I just can't challenge my back or I pay a high price.

But I can still enjoy the garden even if it's just to look - and, of course, keep on being creative with a little help from my husband and gardeners.

And I never got to Dahlia and the zoo. Maybe next post.