Criquette In the Garden

Here at the Casa de la Criquette, spring has finally sprung and I have been as busy as a hive of bees getting the gardens ready for summer. Would you like a tour? Let's start at the front...

This is a very shady and damp bed as it faces north/northeast. It's not good for colorful flowers, but in the heat of the summer, it is a very restful green and white. I grow Limelight and Annabelle hydrangeas, astilbes, chelone (turtlehead) and wintergreen boxwood.


I also have a white dogwood tree, variegated false Solomon's Seal and sweet woodruff groundcover.


Walking around to the west, there is a large berm that runs along the property line and gives us some privacy from the neighbors as well as serving as a windbreak from the wind, which can get pretty ferocious. We grow mainly white pine in the berm, but there is also a Fat Albert blue spruce and a blueberry cobbler viburnum. If you look closely, you'll see that a robin built her nest in this tree. She reared 1 baby, who fledged early this morning.



Our bird feeding station is in this curve of the berm. We have a birdbath, a big cardinal feeder, two finch feeders and a hummingbird feeder.


Moving south to our backyard, we have a patio under the porch, with a small curved bed in front of it. It contains salmon-pink non-stop roses that will start blooming in a week or so. Before that show, the Japanese iris gives us a gorgeous shot of purple for about 3 weeks.

This is one of the earliest perennials to bloom - 'Carolina Dawn' baptisia (false indigo).


If we keep heading south, we get to the woods that run the entire back of the yard. I planted a little plant of white violets last spring and the rabbits ate them down to the ground. I was pleasantly shocked to see this big patch. We have several bunnies this spring, but they haven't taken even a nibble.


This is a honeysuckle shrub, which grows wild in the Kansas City area. It is not a native, but is an introduced species that has started taking over native woodlands and so is considered a pest. I think it's lovely and allow a couple of them in my patch of woods. (Warning to the honeysuckle shrubs: I'm keeping an eye on you!).


When the builder first cleared the land, they left a little copse of trees. We love it, and turned it into a little island bed. I'm growing some daffodils and columbines in the shade and there is a beautiful wild white rose. We hung one of the wren houses there. This year, a little male wren worked very hard building a nest in the house. I saw him bring the female to inspect it. She must not have approved, because after a brief look inside, flew away, with Mr. Wren close behind.

Also in the copse, one of my favorite statues. It belonged to Mr. C's parents. I like to think they are looking out for us whenever I see this little guy.

There's more, but I don't want to test anyone's patience, so I'll save it for another day. Happy summer!

Cornus florida (dogwood, 'Cherokee Princess')