MLK Quote

MLK Quote

Nature's Inspiration Movie

http://www.flickspire.com/m/HealthierL433/NaturesInspiration -- Nature's Inspiration Movie: The photographs in this short video are from award-winning photographer, Ken Jenkins, and they are breathtaking. However, this video is much more than beautiful photographs! Peggy Anderson has compiled beautiful quotations from the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, and many others that truly capture the beauty of nature and solitude. Absolute must watch for nature lovers.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Spring is here And Work has begun

In this part of NJ, the last day of frost is usually around May 15 but seems like, here, the frost-period is over for this year (fingers crossed). So, I have started planting out tomatilos, pepper, potato, onion and other cool and warm weather vegetables. Along with planting and seeding, I have started cleaning out the garden, and making newer raised beds. But I will not bore you with all these. Rather, enjoy these photos/video taken in my garden as the garden is coming back to life.

This is Viburnum Jodii. I planted it last year. The fragrance of this cluster of white flowers is absolutely mind-blowing. It perfumes up the whole garden.

The cow-slips (kind of wild primrose from the UK) have started blooming more profusely. The dainty dangling flowers is indeed a sight to behold. The British country-side must be an amazing place in spring.

Creeping phlox. Plants are real wonder. I do not take care of them; do not even fertilize them. But year after year they come back to please us, to provide magnificent sights for us. How unselfish they are. A real lesson that we should learn from them. How wonderful the world would become if we all become so giving and unselfish.

The native Dogwood plant in full-swing. I only wish the flowers were fragrant.

The Persian Lilacs are also coming into bloom. The whole garden is now inundated with her fragrance. We have quite a few of these trees on our property -- both in the back and front garden. The previous owner of this house must have been in love with this lilac. But, it's a very invasive plant as it sends out suckers everywhere, and it's big job to constantly prune them.

Lady's slippers are coming up as well. Good! for the next couple of weeks, I don't have to worry about going bare-foot :-P

A kind of Azaleas -- the buds have appeared. It will also start blooming soon.

Poppy. Do you know that opium comes from these poppy plants only? Poppy plants originated in Afghanistan/Iran/Central Asian region, and then spread across the world as flower collectors collected these plants for their beauty. There are thousands of varieties of poppy plants in that region and in the Himalayan region of India/Nepal/Bhutan. The flowers are exquisite. Many of those seeds can be bought online; but don't buy them unless you are an expert horticulturist as the seeds are extremely difficult to germinate. For each variety, you have to exactly mimic its home-condition.

The Three-Sisters -- close up of dogwood flowers


The best is for the last. I don't have to go to any circus. Circus is always happening in my garden.

I'm joining in the memes hosted by Nature Notes hosted by Rambling Woods and St Germain's and Today's Flowers meme

17 comments:

  1. What a nice vernal Garden Michelle. I liked your lilac, can feel its fragrance, oh! Interestingly that Dicentra that you call 'Lady's slippers' we call Bleeding heart. It's a beautiful plant.

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  2. What a wonderful garden! Your neighbourhood looks very beautiful... and your squirrels are as acrobatic as ours. :)
    Thank you for your comment today. In Finland, the climate varies considerably between the southern coastal regions and the north. Where I live, in Central/Eastern Finland, the snow normally covers the land from early December to April, but it may well snow in May.
    Wishing you lovely spring days!

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  3. The first one looks like Jasmine to me? Or do they have different leaves? All these fragrant flowers must feel like one huge bouquet in your garden! And so beautiful/ I smiled at the three sisters:)
    Many thanks for being a part of SEASONS with your beautiful Spring images -it's greatly appreciated! Can't wait what you'll have next week to share. Enjoy this one:)

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  4. These are wonderful glimpses of your garden and I love all the awesome colors and shapes and textures! Dogwoods are a favorite of mine. Thanks for stopping by my blog. The link is now open on my blog for WATW. Sorry it wasn't open earlier when you were there. I don't control the linkup, I just copy it :)

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  5. Your garden is looking beautiful!

    So is your squirrel a clown or a high-wire artist? (Or both?) :)

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  6. You have a gorgeous garden!!! :)

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  7. Loving all your wonderful spring flowers -- the bleeding heart really stole MY heart! All of these flowers are pretty much just memories for me now as we are in subtropical Florida in the Spring and by the time we get back to Oregon most of them will have finished blooming. (There will be poppies and maybe dogwood.) When we owned our home in Oregon and gardened there we loved our raised bed vegetable garden. It's the only way to go!

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  8. Stunning photos and your flowers and blooming trees are gorgeous! I would like to invite you to link with my meme, Today's Flowers. The address is,

    http://anenglishgirlrambles2016.blogspot.com/2016/04/todays-flowers-405-april-22nd-2016.html

    It would be a great pleasure to have you join us for this one, or perhaps for the next? The new link opens on Friday at midnight. There is also a button at the top of the page on the right if the post gets shuffled down. Thank you for considering and enjoy your day :)

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    1. I came back to thank you for participating in Today's Flowers KL, and it is I who is honored to have you do so. The meme is one that I do every week and a new link always opens on Friday. I would love to have you join us when you can. It only continues because of everyone who so generously shares their flowers and you would be so very welcome. Thank you again. Your flowers are phenomenal.

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  9. Lots of loveliness here. Spring is such a beautiful season. The White flower is really nice, I like fragrant flowers. Dogwoods are also very pretty. Enjoy your gardening. I was hoping to plant flowers today but it decided to rain instead.

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  10. Wow...lots of color there...I have one of the mesh feeders you have in your video and plenty of squirrels.... If you want the information from that graphic I posted on my blog about baby birds, just click of it and it will open and then right click the mouse and save the photo for your records.. Michelle

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  11. Yay! spring is back. It's lovely to get dirty doing gardening. I love to see the plants that i planted grow .

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  12. What a fabulous collection. It is the dogwood that I envy most.
    Yes, the cowslips I have in abundance. Don't even know how they got to my garden. I never planted them.
    Why did the bull rush?
    Because it saw the cow slip
    Sorry :-)

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  13. Wonderful. I would love to smell those lilacs. Ours are not yet ready to bloom. Love the orange poppy. I agree that plants are amazing, though when you think about it they have been getting along without us for eons.

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  14. So many gorgeous flowers in your garden. My favorite is the poppy. Have a wonderful weekend!

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  15. I enjoy memes too. Enjoyed this post very much for the reasons that you mentioned and more. I have a link on my side bar if you want to look at the ones I participate in, and see if you want to do the same. There may be ones you haven’t seen yet. I have more to add when I have the time. The button is below my American and British flags. Your flowers are gorgeous, all your photos are, and the critters. I have loads of squirrels but no dogs to shoo them away :( They are like my pets now, sort of :) I do feed them, as well as the birds and all bring me loads of enjoyment. The squirrels probably/definitely get more than their fair share. They are definitely naughty little rascals. Thanks so much for sharing with Today's Flowers, appreciate it very much. Enjoy the rest of your week.

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