Spring in my yard

Took a stroll around my yard (which also includes the neighbor's just uphill from us) this evening and found the following signs of spring:

Growing along the rock wall dividing my yard from the neighbors, near our rhubarb patch.

Ribes species

Daffodils!! One of the few plants the d**n deer and d**n rabbits don't destroy as soon as they emerge.

Scilla siberica. This is one of the first plants up in my yard, and by far the first to bloom. I love the way they dot my yard with their blue flowers. I know they are not native, and some folks consider them invasive, but, well what can I say, I like them. And in the 20 years we have lived here they have not spread beyond a few locations in our yard.

Scilla siberica

 I went searching at the neighbors to see if his Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) was up. At first all I found were some unfolding leaves and tightly closed flower buds.

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

But then I looked in a sunnier spot and found that the flowers had opened!

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

 I had looked for hops earlier this week and saw no sign of them. And yet today here they are, some even 6 inches tall already. I cleared away the rest of last years debris (earning some scratches and a lot of itchy skin) and made sure the trellis fabric was ready for this years vines.

Elder shrub is sending out lots of flower buds. When the leaves are still clasped about the flower clusters it looks like hands clasping a brain.

Elder species (Sambucus sp)

Mr. Wild Knits spent some time prepping garden beds and today I planted two varieties of garlic. We are a bit out of sync with the usual planting schedule. So this garlic will be harvested in the late summer, then replanted in the fall for harvesting and eating next year. A bit of delayed gratification. Once we get the rest of the gardens cleaned out and prepped we could start putting in the cool weather crops. Will wait on things like tomatoes until after Memorial Day, when the threat of a hard frost is much lessened.