Garden in Spring, 2014 (I)

Our garden has been blooming all the way since March after a frosty February. Exciting!

I have unknowingly developed this strange anxiety about posting photos of flowers on fb, worrying that I would be bombarding others with my personal hobby. In the end, photos of, for instance, babies are definitely more inviting and exciting. Therefore, for the time being, I would grow my private interest here instead.

I sometimes felt funny that when the public side of the self gets too much publicized, there is a tendency in me to privatize it.

In a Christmas party last year, a neighbour said that he always saw me in the garden. I understood that he meant no harm; however, it is difficult for me to take it as a compliment, given that most adult females in this neighbourhood are young mothers preoccupied with their toddlers. I have been feeling a certain degree of pressure on childless couple, who have had too much time to spend on plants. (I do believe, however, I would never abandon the lives in the garden even if there are other lives in the household.)

Comparatively, I believe, I made much less efforts in my garden than the years before. Apart from giving regular fertilizer and water last winter, I did minimum. However, when the first sign of life showed up in spring, this obsession with the vegetable matter was duly awakened.  

Here are some of this year's highlights.

Baby's breath spirea in March, 2014

Tulips in April, 2014

Tulips in April, 2014 

Flower buds of peony in April 2014

Peonies in late April, 2014

Poppies of different kinds from late April

A close-up of the front yard crowded with peonies, pansies and a purple ground cover in the back, since late April

Poppies may sound like a cheap choice in a garden, but they are one of my favourites every year. They are very colourful, resilient and simple. And most of all, they remind me of the four years I spent in another country.

What would come next is no less exciting, and, truely, I have never been so looking forward to rainy season in Japan. After two years' bareness, the hydrangea has finally produced some flower buds.