A Walk Around the Garden in April

My garden is in such disarray from being completely neglected for the last three and a half years! After having my third child, gardening just had to take a back seat for a couple of years, but now I'm back! I appreciate the time I have to garden all the more.  I have been working at a feverish pace the last six weeks to get it back in shape and I am almost there. I have one large area that has not been tended, however the rest of the garden has either been weeded and mulched or given a complete overhaul with new plants and designs.  I will be adding a post later this month on plants that can survive complete neglect. We all need those don't we? As we never know what curveball life will throw us around the corner from today!  Anyway enough talk, let's take a walk and see what's blooming right now...

 Catmint is just coming in to bloom. Note the toad on the bottom left corner of the picture.  I love toads in the garden because they usually mean I don't have any snakes (for the time being).

 'Little Pixie' Japanese Maple is in the pot.  A completely neglected tree in a pot for three years and it has come through okay.  Newly planted around the base of the pot is Heuchera 'Caramel' and Guem 'Tequila Sunrise'.  I am working to provide more foliage color/contrast in my renovated garden.  The heuchera leaves match the color of the flowers on the guem.  The maple and heuchera leaves also play nicely off each other.

 Heuchera 'Caramel'

 Guem 'Tequila Sunrise'

 'Little Pixie' Japanese Maple

 Decidous azalea that has been here longer than me.

 Azalea whose name I don't know!

 What do you do with an urn that has broken off from it's pedestal?  Turn it on its side and place it on the ground, of course! Multi colored violas are planted in the urn.

 'Homestead Purple' Verbena that is newly planted. I did have the same verbena planted here prior to the third child, however this is NOT a plant that could stand the neglect.

 Sweet Jonquils with verbena in the background.

Unknown bearded iris with an under planting of sedum that has stood a few years of neglect.

 Newly planted area of dianthus from the Scent First series and spiderwort 'Sweet Kate'.  Again, I'm working more on foliage color this year and not just flowers with bland green leaves.

 Deutzia 'Yuki Snowflake'

 Violas, salvia and creeping jenny.

Back on the porch - an inexpensive hydrangea from Trader Joes that I purchased for Easter this year.  I hope you enjoyed the walk!