And all the rest

There is a lone hyacinth in one flower bed, and another in another flower bed. These are new flower beds where there was grass until three years ago. I didn't plant them, they just appeared. I imagine that years ago there might have been flower beds in those areas that were allowed to go to grass and these bulbs just lay dormant under the grass till I took it away. They came up last year and the year before and I assumed they were tulips of some description till I saw the buds. They're quite pretty. There are also a huge number of grassy looking sprouts that have come up along with the hyacinth. They've never bloomed and I was going to get rid of them if they didn't bloom again this year, but, lo and behold, some of them have produced buds this year. I'll probably have photos of daffodils in the next week or so.

The pink bleeding hearts are blooming early this year. They were planted two years ago, along with a white and a red. The red promptly gave up the ghost (or so I thought), and the white struggled to survive, but the pink took to the spot as if it had grown there from seed. Last year it started bloming in mid June and bloomed right through the summer. It even produced some seed, but the birds got them before they ripened enough for me to collect. You can see the white directly behind the pink, and in the upper right corner you can see the ressurection of the red. It appears quite healthy. I guess it did come up last year, but it was hidden behind the white which grew profusely but only produced a single rather pathetic flower stalk. Here's hoping they all bloom this year.

The gooseberry bush looks like its going to produce an abundant crop this year. I've put it in a cage so that it won't ambush my ankles as I walk by in the garden. It tends to want to spread along the ground, and its quite thorny. The cage will also allow the birds a place to sit while they eat the berries. They got most of them last year before they got dark and sweet. If there are enough for me this year I may try to make a jar or two of jelly.

We welcome a new addition to the north yard. A pear tree that we planted on Saturday evening. It seems quite happy with its new home as the leaf buds are opening nicely. No flowers, so no fruit this year. The nursery said it wouldn't fruit for three years or so, but they said the same about the apple trees and they gave us fruit the first year. There wasn't alot that first year, but both the Spartan and the Jonahfree did have a few apples on them. It looks like the Spartan will give a good crop this year if the blossoms don't freeze once they open, and provided the Jonahfree blooms to provide the necessary crosspollination. There are some crabapple trees in the area so I'll get some fruit regardless, but it would be a more sure thing if the Jonahfree blooms.