The day vacation

Taking some much needed time off work, this is a bit earlier than I usually take, but like I said, I really needed it.

The stay-cation was mostly done at home being the time off that we set our sights to finishing the garden and getting it ready for spring. Usually this is done in early May. This year, however, since spring came with such a passion, a little earlier was called for. That's OK.

Of course, I can't leave work for any length of time without finding something to do to make it a bit interesting and breaking up the work around the house. Since yesterday was forecasted to be the last of the really nice days, a trip to Longwood Gardens was in order.

I've been finding going places and doing things other than the garden on really nice days kind of hard to do. My garden is starting to grow in now and I'm finding it very pleasant. But we also needed the break. Taking care of the garden does take up the majority of our time off, so this was a good thing.

We usually don't get to Longwood this early in the season, but it was pleasant since we did get to see plants and bulbs in bloom that we don't often get to see. The wisteria was in bloom, so of course we had to visit the wisteria garden. It is very pretty and very fragrant this time of year. The plants are impressive, though I wouldn't want them in my garden. They are to big and aggressive for me. Besides, the Japanese wisteria, as these are, will attract the bees, but not much else. My wisteria is an East Coast American variety that is somewhat different, smaller, less aggressive and blooms throughout the summer, though the blooms are smaller and more plentiful.

Longwood's spring bulb and summer annual walk is always spectacular! These two photos show the wonderful array of color that really draws the eye and begs you to walk through and enjoy the lovely fragrance and display. This is just one of the displays. There is a second one around the children's garden that is just as colorful. We also had to stop to watch the Blue Martins flying around the house, taking insects that might be a problem to the growing vegetables in the vegetable garden. That gave us ideas for our vegetable garden until we also discovered that you might want an owl guard for it at extra cost of course. We might have to change our minds about this. The owl is one predator that we do seem to have around here. They often go for the baby rabbits that run all around the garden, but if they also harass the Blue Martins, maybe it's best we not put one up. We'll think about this more.

We ended up spending the usual amount of time at Longwood but we didn't stop this time for refreshment at the Terrace Restaurant as we normally do. Nor did we see as much of the garden as we usually do either. It was such a beautiful day and we just leisurely strolled around the garden taking in all that we normally don't see when we're here.

We were drawn by the color, so everywhere there was color, we went. We were particularly interested in the daffodils and tulips, the growing new vegetables and how they had their berry vines such as raspberries growing. It was interesting to see while you could still see the skeletons of the plants and the way they had them growing on wires and trellises.

We stopped on the way home at the local nursery to pick up a new variety of dwarf lilac that sounded interesting to put in a hole that really needed something interesting in the garden. The variety is Boomerang. It is very fragrant and will be next to the deck and my office window where the scent will be greatly appreciated. We will hopefully get that in today before the rain comes. I also got two yarrows for the back perennial bed. We are cleaning that bed out now, getting it ready for the season and a lot of the stuff in there will unfortunately have to be dug up with the wheat that has taken over the entire site. I'm planning on broadcasting some wildflowers there as well in hopes of keeping the farmer's wheat out of that bed. Anything that is aggressive with spreading is welcome (except mint). The yarrow will prove to be a good addition here.

On our return home, there was a box on the front porch with two roses in it; Brigadoon and Falling in Love. Brigadoon I've been wanting for at least 7 years and now I finally got it. Falling in Love, I've been looking at for the past two years. These came from a company where I had a gift certificate to that I had won as a door prize at the Mid-Winter's Rose Convention in February. These were both lovely, large bare-root roses with really strong root systems. They got soaked and planted the same day.

I need to go as I can see the clouds pushing in overhead and I want to get some of the wildflower seed in before the rain comes. There will be more later.