This being my first spring in this house, I wondered what surprises the yard would bring as it came back to life. My neighbor tells me that the couple who built this house did some landscaping about ten years ago. After they both passed away, the property became a rental and was only minimally maintained. The grass is half weeds and bare spots.

The beds appeared to be in slightly better shape, at least until the dandelions started to fill them. A few weeks ago, green evidence of bulb plants started to push through the ground in the biggest bed, ten steps into the yard from my front door.

They started blooming last week, the narcissus first, white and then yellow. The tulips came next, the red a few days before the purple. I don’t recall ever having seen purple tulips before, but I haven’t historically been terribly observant of such things. I liked tulips as a young boy because they were easy to draw.

I will probably plant some annuals around the edges of this bed in a few weeks. But I sure love these bulb plants, an annual gift from my home’s original owner.

A lot of these little blue-violet flowers have come up in clumps in this bed, too. I like how their petals are all different lengths. I have no idea what these flowers are, so tell me if you know.

Click any of these photos to see them slightly larger.