First Bloom (!)

Iris reticulata 'Pixie'. Elsewhere, the tulips are pushing their snouts out of the ground, the daffs are budding, an army of Siberian squills has appeared overnight, and the bunnies are grazing on many of my several varieties of muscari.

Comments

[Kathy]

What part of your garden is this? It seems rather stony, and I think I see patterns of stone in the background. Is it some kind of terrace?

[Bookish Gardener]

The back of our house faces south, and this is an area right off the back of the house which was landscaped in gravel (and a gigantic juniper, and a bunch of barberries, but they're gone now) before we got here. It bakes hot in the summer but has decent drainage, so I've been trying to take advantage of the conditions. This is where I've got agastaches (all of which survived this past winter) and a lavender border, and where I'll be trying out some penstemons this coming season. The patterns of stone you see are pebble-inlaid concrete stepping stones, which I keep moving around and stacking together to get more planting room, and which I'll probably be donating to my mom's garden very soon.