Spring Time in Portland

While we were on vacation for a week, our lovely City of Portland became a completely different city. Trees that were just branches when we left were now filling in with delicate light green foliage. Our apple, plum and ornamental cherry trees, which were bare when we left, were now exploding with blooms and leaves. Shrubs and bushes were completely filled in and ready to bloom. Due to the insanely mild winter we had, I knew our yard would be bursting and going rogue if I didn't strategically transplant and move ground covers and perennials before we left for vacation and boy was I right.

Springtime is absolutely amazing in Portland with magical light in the sky, as well as brilliant color on the ground. The clouds are no longer just massive gray cover, but fluffy white clouds mixed in with blue sky peaking through. I simply love this time of year, now only if the temperatures would rise up to the 78 degrees we were experiencing on vacation. 

Our little plum tree, which we desperately try and keep the bamboo from overtaking, rewarded our efforts with a full blooming tree this year. It may have also helped that I gave it a major haircut last fall.

If you follow us on instagram or recall this post a month ago, we have documented our spring time hobby of figuring out what to do with the insanely invasive forget-me-not plants. We found a small ignored corner of the yard for them to thrive without a care in the world, which they took to quickly.

This perennial corner of our yard was bare to the ground when we left and came back to everything coming back full force.

The glorious blooms, fluffy white clouds and peaks of blue sky that I love most about springtime.

When we first moved I decided to dig up this small pink perennial flower and plant it in the front, the bamboo quickly overtook the yard, but the pink plant simply spread in a different direction and is now spreading all along the front, not sure if this a good thing or not, but I will leave it for now.

Our strawberry raised bed. I painstakingly laid down straw to help with the slugs this year and the plants seem to peak through overnight, but good news is it will be easier to add more straw now that they are standing tall.

This is a corner of the garden I haven't yet had a chance to deal with and the bleeding heart came on full force while we were gone and is over taking the astilbes. I hope they don't mind a late spring move.