A Pop of Primula in My Yard

Published photos don't just happen...

The photo at the bottom of this post may be a little too bright on some screens with good resolution, but the photo fail just below was sent directly to the blog from my smart phone after a few edits. I don't know what happened, but it appears a bit washed out:

The truth of what this patch of primulas really looks like just might be quite different!

First of all, I trimmed the shrub next to the primulas. Then I spread some chips, fresh from the dump, to brighten the background. I deadheaded the spent blossoms. Then I sent the photo over to my laptop via email so I can use the Picassa editing program. I upped the color, and added a little border of shadow.

I don't even have great editing tools, but I understand how false a photo can be!

But this is my little primrose patch, which does add a a bright note of early color to the side of my garage. The plants have grown well this spring, weathering the April snows and continuing to form new buds. I have sprinkled them with milorganite fertilizer and shot them with some putrefied egg solids, to repel any varmints who might think they look tasty.

Yesterday the temperature soared to nearly 80 degrees and I thought I was going to die! I'm sure all the plants were excited to start growing and blooming, but it is still April and cooler weather will certainly be back.

Today the temperature has not yet reached 50 degrees. My body is not good at all these temperature fluctuations! But I mostly live indoors. The plants must necessarily be better at this than I am. They become hardened.  Plants grown in the greenhouse have to be hardened-off. That is a technical gardening term!

The only hardening that happens to me is probably occurring in my arteries!

This is a (somewhat) false, over-edited view of my primula patch.