April 20, 2026 🌱 The peonies are no longer so brown.

April 19, 2026 🌱 This year I’m preemptively tomato-caging the smooth blue aster.

April 18, 2026 🌱 Another pic that I’m surprised I hadn‘t already posted: a not-sleeping bumblebee.

This one was go-go-go busy-busy visiting all the grape hyacinth.

April 17, 2026 🌱 We’re blooming already?

Geum triflorum.

It’s a North American native, although here in Indiana I’m a little outside of its native range.

Glad to hear!

A weed is just a plant that‘s growing where a person doesn’t want it.

There‘s a reason so many North American native plants are named “somethingweed”. European settlers wanted to recreate European gardens and farms, and the ecosystem already in place was a nuisance to them.

A rosette of prairie smoke leaves.

April 16, 2026 🌱 Prairie smoke, named after its wispy, ethereal flowers.

Planted last spring — I’m hoping it will bloom this year.

April 15, 2026 🌱 There are now two poppy mallow plants in the garden, which pleases me greatly.

I transplanted this one late last year, same time as the peonies. And forgot it, same as the peonies.

April 14, 2026 🌱 Another pic that I’m surprised I hadn‘t already posted: the violets, plural, in bloom.

A couple of the white ones I added last season are blooming too 🥰

April 13, 2026 🌱 Daffies in full bloom, and some grape hyacinth too.

I did not know that, but I’m not surprised. It’s a keystone species, which basically means that everything eats it 😆

April 12, 2026 🌱 The Canada goldenrod is coming in thick.

April 11, 2026 🌱 I’ve posted grape hyacinth leaves, grape hyacinth leaves in snow, grape hyacinth leaves that got munched, grape hyacinth flower buds about to open, and a close-up of a grape hyacinth flower with a bee.

But I somehow never posted just a pic of the plant in bloom.

Here you go.

April 10, 2026 🌱 The sandcherry is back in bloom.

I wish I could freeze time with this one. It’s so beautiful and so fleeting.

Dark red peony sprouts with the leaves still furled.

April 9, 2026 🌱 I transplanted peonies towards the end of last year and promptly forgot I did so.

Then I came back from my trip and wondered what are these brown things sprouting in the garden.

I have a feeling this isn’t the last time I’m gonna play “what is this and did I put it there?”

Three volunteer mystery plants, likely aster or goldenrod.

April 1, 2026 🌱 Whatever this plant is, it’s sprouting all over one of my garden beds. Likely aster or goldenrod. I’ll let it grow to get a better ID.

I‘m heading out of town and won’t be posting for a week. See y’all next Thursday.

Vinca vines with light purple, five-petaled flowers in front of a green-painted wall.

March 31, 2026 🌱 The vinca is not only growing where nothing else will, it’s even blooming there.

March 30, 2026 🌱 I spy daffodil buds.

Heart-shaped violet leaves and purple-ribbed chocolate mint leaves growing together next to a stepping stone.

March 29, 2026 🌱 The violets and the chocolate mint are the same size, for now.

March 28, 2026 🌱 A particularly exuberant clump of glory-of-the-snow.

March 27, 2026 🌱 Another columbaby made it to year two 🥳

April 26, 2026 🌱 It appears that I have a second blue-stemmed goldenrod.

Curious if it spread by seed or by root.

March 25, 2026 🌱 The crocuses are in full bloom. Here’s a different shade of purple.

I haven’t the foggiest idea. It’s a volunteer 😅

March 24, 2026 🌱 New growth on the sedge by the compost bin, coming up through the remains of last year’s growth.

It looks like salt-and-pepper hair and I love it.

March 23, 2026 🌱 After its surprise appearance last spring, the glory-of-the-snow appears to have made itself at home in my garden.

Vinca is indeed aggressive and not native where I am.

I do have it growing in a spot where nothing else survives — the combination of foot traffic and low light is a tough one, and vinca is better than bare dirt or pavement.

Everywhere else I pull it with prejudice.

Vinca vines with dark green old growth and bright green new shoots.

March 22, 2026 🌱 Bright green vinca shoots.

March 21, 2026 🌱 The veggie garden is a mess, but the chives don’t mind.