Second Sign of Spring

The second sign that Spring is here, right after baseball practice starting, are the hints of all things blooming. Just this past week the crocuses (or is that croci?) popped up, followed by the daffodils and today the first bursts of bright yellow on the forsythia bushes were announcing that more greening is to come!

And the rain rain rain came down down down in rushing rolling rivulets . . . a quote from one of my very favorite childhood read-a-loud Winnie the Pooh also describes what has been happening here the last few days. Between the cloud bursts and sunshine my thoughts turn to sprucing up and planting. But you can rush ahead only to be disappointed . . . if you plant too early bad things could happen to those tender plants. Last year it was excruciatingly hard to wait until after Mother's Day to plant; but I did and was rewarded! What I will do to help bide my time is to plan what I'm going to plant.

In the fence boxes, I'll probably go with impatiens and hanging ivy; they look good together and are almost impossible to kill. For the ground boxes I'll go with rolling wave petunias. Along the fence we'll have morning glory, because they will be back from last year. I would love to have some black-eyed Susann's somewhere. I haven't figured out the front flower bed yet; last year I went with a variety of pinks, purples and white perennials; I'll have to wait and see if they made it.

The periwinkle is already blooming under several of the bushes out front and I love that as ground cover. I also have ivy and strawberries out back; plus a crazed chipmunk that the dogs are digging after back there. Argh!

I would love to hear of any other ideas for someone who has a brown thumb! Keep in mind that I am in post military housing, so any thoughts for things that demand time for long term results are not very appealing.