It’s spring. I spend hours just looking around, finding new spring discoveries, and just plain old enjoying the season. It’s still early enough that one can imagine all the great things that will happen, and forget the drought and hail, insects and acts of God which will surely come along. My work ethic borders on laziness this time of year (and actually most any time of year) but how can I motivate myself when my ugly little plastic chair has found a partner and all I want to do is “stop to smell the roses”?
Someone scooped up the last orange chair and brought it home for me, and we’re still taunting the neighbors with plastic furniture in the front yard 🙂
The daffodils are out in full force, and the cool spring makes them last forever. The cooler weather also seems to give the reds and pinks a brighter color, and many of them actually look like their catalog glamour shots. Speaking of brighter colors, two blue chairs found their way into the backyard, and although I like the orange better, it’s nice to finally have an uncracked, uncrooked, safe seat to think about things in.
One of the things that needs thinking about is the neighboring industrial park. The warehouse needs more room, so word is they’re expanding down to our end of the property. The big boulder pile is in the process of being crushed to pebbles and in the near future our entire western view will be altered.
Construction has finally reached our end of the industrial park. The kids are upset their rock mountain is being crushed down, between that and the railroad tracks it’s the most popular hiking destination around here.
I’ll bore you with more daffodil and tulip pictures in the next post, right now spare time is in short supply and sneaking out for a few minutes here and there is about all I can manage until work and school calm down. Hope spring is treating you well!
sorta like suburbia 
Oh, boy. Not quite the “borrowed view” you really want to borrow. Maybe a row of short trees to block the near view and still see the hills beyond?
No, an industrial park wasn’t what we were hoping for next door, and I’ll miss the view, but hopefully as trees grow up things will look better. I’ll be sorry to see the sunset ruined.
I’ve been working on a tree line for a few years, editing the weed trees which sprout and nursing on the cherries and oaks. It could always be worse, and fortunately the setbacks for any buildings and parking leave a nice buffer for me to sneak on to and work with 😉
Love the blue chairs too, although orange is certainly more spring-like and goes so nicely with your pretty tulips. 😉 I think you’re going to need a few shrubs to screen off the industrial park Frank… How about a flowering hedge with some evergreens mixed in?
Thanks for the thumbs up on the chairs 🙂
I’m wondering if evergreens will be the way to go. The evening sun comes from there and I’d hate to block it off in the winter…. since the screen would need to be quite substantial.
Flowering shrubs are a plan though. It wouldn’t hurt to cover up the chain link fence too!
I’d start thinking about some trees as well as shubs to break up the view of the new industrial unit. If you draw attention to things within the garden it will become less obvious. It was great to see some broader views of the garden and surroundings Frank.
The broader view isn’t quite as nice as lambing ewes and fields of poppies, is it?
You’re right about drawing attention to the garden, this is the first spring where I’m starting to notice shrubs and trees creating a presence, and it really does help to have something other than fleeting color to keep the eye in the garden.
But I do need a screen too 😉
What a shame, losing a view is so frustrating, some planting is needed with a few evergreens to shield you in the winter from the worst bit. Your orange chairs are looking good with your tulips and I’m sure that from the road, no-one can tell that they’re plastic!
thanks! Someone already commented that they liked the chairs…. I think they were serious 😉
We were lucky to have the view while we did, and to be honest this isn’t a pristine area made for postcards! Most of the industrial park was a former coal mine dump, and barren spoil piles with sparse birch trees was our previous view.
Lovely to see all this colour in your garden, Frank. No time for being lazy here though…I’ve just come home to a jungle! Things grow like mad at this time of year and then it’ll calm down. Time to plant some trees and shrubs aalong your boundary to screen whatever they’re up to, what do you think?
I’m kind of torn on planting screens. I’d like to use the land behind the fence to get the screen going and save my own property for my best goodies. The owners of the park have been fairly accommodating as far as planting screening evergreens (we asked that they not put anything behind our house). I told them I’d like to use the buffer property to get some nicer trees growing up and they didn’t seem to care. I think I actually prefer the buffer next door over another house or development.
You really have a lot of spring bulb plants. Lots of color too. You need a sight buffer, not to mention a noise buffer too. That construction is going to give you a lot of dust as well. Good luck and hope it all works out.
We’ve been dealing with dust for years, and the owner of the industrial park has actually had our houses cleaned a few times…. otherwise I shouldn’t complain. I feel like the buffer will give me more room to plant, and the retaining pond that sits immediately behind our house should always remain undeveloped…. I just wish it would hold water though, it would be so nice to get a few ducks and frogs back there!
Hope you figure out a happy solution to the screening problem. Your daffodils and tulips look so cheerful and welcoming.
Thanks Susie, it’s not exactly well designed, but I just like flowers…. lots of flowers 🙂