Spring Primroses !

I am always sure that Spring is here when one of my favorite little flowers starts to bloom. I have carried these little gems with us wherever we have lived . The family has gotten very used to mom moving pots of plants along with the other necessities of the home!!! Everytime I visit my mom's home I return with a new clump of plants. These Primroses are called Hose-On-Hose, originally from England. They grow in the hedgrows in the UK and they do very well in the sandy soil on Cape Cod. When we lived in Oklahoma several plant experts laughed when I told them about these plants and where they were from- no Way would they grow in the sizzling heat of OK. Wrong!! I found the perfect spot in the shade with lots of compost and they bloomed their fool heads off!!

Aren't these just the sweetest little blooms you have ever seen????? The blossoms are actually double. One flower emerges from the center of the previous flower. Each year each plant doubles so one can get a very large clump of plants.

I always scatter little piles or shrines of beach stones throughout the yard to remind me of the ocean. These stones were collected on Cape Cod over several years of long beach walks.

My favorite Spring color pallette! (Maybe it has something to do with my Swedish heritage- I just love blue and yellow!!)

Spring Planting!

During a break in our rainy weather I was able to recruit my favorite garden helper to plant peas in our new raised bed garden. We borrowed a neighbors cute little tiller and chopped up all of the grass clippings and shredded leaves and kitchen waste that has been composting all winter long. We could not believe the number of worms that we saw!! the soil is black and rich and wonderful- a far cry from the typical VA clay soil. We put in sugar snap peas, three kinds of lettuce, arugula and spinach. We can't wait to be eating salad greens from our own garden!!