Spring blooms

Things are starting to wake up around here. Each day when I walk through the garden, I see something new. Most of the fruit trees- peach, apricot, pear, apple, plum, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit- have begun to bud and bloom. The rose bushes have leafed out and are full of buds; the fig tree and grape vines are showing their first leaves, and zinnia, hollyhock, larkspur, nasturtium, coreopsis, and galliardia seedlings are popping up all over the place. I like to let the flowers come up where they will, and fill in the blanks with transplants. 

Lemon blossoms

First rose of the season

Peach blossoms

Pear blossoms

Nasturtiums

Petunias and Swiss chard


The words of an old hymn we used to sing in the sixties kept playing through my head as I wandered through and worked in the garden this week:

What a wondrous time is spring, when all the trees are budding. 
The birds begin to sing; the flowers start their blooming. 
That's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it. You want to sing; it's fresh like spring; you want to pass it on.