These photos are from yesterday in my yard. This batch is mostly from the prairie garden and ritual meadow.


The prairie garden is nearly knee-high grass and goldenrod now. In the front, the mowed patch is big bluestem. Just beyond that, there are wild strawberries blooming, which you can't really see. On the left, the sunchokes are sprouting. Toward the middle, you can see this year's cross-path cut through. Last year's is mostly clover now. Changing the cross-path each year helps different things grow. At the far end, not visible from this angle, black raspberries and blackberries have flower buds.




This is the ritual meadow looking south toward the orchard. The firepit is in the middle.




A honeybee visits the honeysuckle. It's a very bee-loud glade right now.




Irises are budding in the flowerbed. These are a purple so dark that it's almost black.




Some of the tulips are propagating weirdly, with these glossy bright-colored offshoots at soil level. I'm not sure what to do with them. Probably throw down some more compost before I plant summer flowers. Impatiens did well there last year. I am sure that leaving these so high up during winter would be bad for them.




One of the last tulips, this red-and-yellow parrot tulip is still going.




This is a view into the streetside forest yard, from the driveway, looking south-west-ish. Straight ahead is a shellbark hickory sapling. Off to the right, that patch of brush is actually a couple of crabapple saplings, and where I planted the pagoda dogwood recently.




Lily of the valley is blooming along the north edge of the house. It's very happy there and forming a good-sized patch. I love the fragrance. :D




This is the goddess garden with statue in place. Nothing much is blooming right now except for volunteer violets. The spring bulbs haven't pulled in their leaves yet. But the hens-and-chicks survived the winter; there's a red and a green one in there. Several different thymes are growing strongly. There's a golden lemon thyme just left of center in back. I think the others are mother-of-thyme or maybe creeping thyme. There might be an English in there. In any case, several of them have run out into the grass, which is fine.




This is the forest garden just outside the kitchen window. The narrow, slanted branch in the middle has two male house finches on it, one near the base and one near the top.




A male rose-breasted grosbeak eats from the hopper feeder. It has songbird blend birdseed, which is mostly sunflower seeds, a little safflower, a few peanut halves, and bits of dried fruit.