My Favorite Spot, April 14th

I have to admit, I am still enjoying the front stoop. The hyacinths’ perfume is absolutely intoxicating. I’ve had the good fortune of digging and planting just downwind of them, so I pause every now and then in my heavy labor to sniff and appreciate. Hyacinths aside, it’s time to move on to another favorite spot in the garden.

Like last spring, I’m enchanted by the green freshness of the strip of garden along our garage. The hollyhocks are lush, the sedum is diminutively charming, and the lysmachia is still in tidy purple clumps. Little did I know, last fall, as I tucked the free bulbs that accompanied an order into the only bare spots in the bed, how lovely pale yellow tulips would look against lavender foliage. (I could have sworn that the free tulips were red, but the yellow is serendipitously lovely.) No sign of life yet from the tall coreopsis or echinacea that is planted behind the lavender, but I won’t give up yet.

I pass by the garage bed as I travel between the front and back yards. I nearly always slow down to appreciate the early growth and poke around in the bare spots for emerging shoots. It’s my new favorite spot in the garden.