backyard garden update

so far this year, working on the backyard has been in spurts. winter lasted forever, with snow still on the ground well into May. as a result, everything we planted last year was realllllly slow to come up and i worried that i had lost a lot of plants. turns out, the only casualties were the global arborvitae, a rhododendron, and one of the 6 ostrich ferns. i had a couple days off in May that happened to have glorious weather, so i took full advantage and spent most of my time getting the yard up to par and adding some new perennials. these pictures were taken yesterday, after cleaning up after a few really bad storms.

in the back you can see the ferns and hostas from last year, with a new rhododendron that the squirrels keep eating. we plan to plant some annuals in the 2 pots.

the side bed, with the hydrangea in the foreground, followed by new stuff- an astilbe, 2 ligularia, and 3 more hostas, one of which is flowering

the flowering hosta, attempting to protect the rhododendron with a little fence, my empress wu hosta, then the hostas and bleeding hearts from last year 

last year's hostas and some new additions- a purple thing whose name i've already forgotten, and 2 versions of Jacob's Ladder (one of which isn't looking so good all of a sudden)

we replaced the burning bush with some basil and cilantro, and the lilac is growing strong! she bloomed purple AND white blooms this year, although i can't seem to find a picture of it.

the empress wu in her new home!

a better shot of what's blooming in the side bed. the ligularias replaced the arborvitae- the lady at the garden store suggested trying some "woodland" perennials, as they are used to the acidity and crampedness of tree root systems. so far so good...