“Who loves a garden
still his Eden keeps,
Perennial pleasures plants,
and wholesome harvest reaps.”
~Amos Bronson Alcott 

In my garden, Spring is my favourite season.  I like the clean, winter-washed look of the beds and the grass beneath the conifers turning green where only last week, snow lay.  I marvel at the neat fresh shoots of the first bulbs peeking up through the leaf mould.  To me, spring holds all the promise, all the anticipation of the gardening year ahead. I wonder  .... did my struggling Japanese maple survive, have the rabbits fed in my euonymus all winter? Did a late frost hit my magnolia buds?

If we've had a mild winter, the forsythia will bloom in May along with the grape hyacinth, first tulips and dwarf iris .

Long before the tulips are in bloom, I am in the greenhouse, potting up the seedlings started in March in the house. Our greenhouse creates a summer haven in the midst of damp cold spring - it's 80 degrees in there, warmed only by the sun.  

Candytuft adds bright white contrast to this border. 

Our garden is the result of twenty-five years of planting and replanting, learning and experimenting, socializing and sharing. Dave is the muscle man - he runs the heavy equipment, keeps the grass mowed and  creates the best eight foot high piles of compost with his loader.  Beyond that, he has the vision and the engineering mind to see beyond the plants and the flowerbeds to the bigger picture. He designed our garden sheds and built the irrigation system and planned the "big dig" of our the pond.  His vision is evident everywhere.