It's 2014- I lost a whole year. What happened?

I will tell you what happened.  I realized that I would be gone quite a bit last summer.  I went to Germany, really enjoyed the tulips there.

 I went to help Catherine and Zane move out of LA. Then I went to N. CA to meet my new grandson. I was at work in C. Springs and then I went to my 40th high school reunion in Ohio, and to Tennessee for the birth of another grandson. Back to attend Alex's flight school graduation, visit hot Texas and last but not least, a lovely week in Alma, CO. I was not home much. I decided to plant some annuals (I did enjoy those) and let the veggie garden go to Cosmos!

Still looked pretty good.

However, it's a new year and my inner gardener is out again. I think I was inspired by the photos of Marg Van Wyck's amazing garden in C. Springs.

So what I've been doing:

April 12

I put in Eko Compost both in the veg garden and the pine tree garden.  I cleaned the soil out of roots, hard clay etc.  Note above that there is part of the garden that is not turned up.  Tom did that.  Not sure why but decided that part will be the Cosmos garden.  

You can hardly see the perennials coming up.  I've given up on bulbs.  One year, maybe it was 2010, I had so many tulips.  Just looked at pictures from 2011, wow, beautiful garden that year.  Yes, things looking bleak this year.  note the covers in the second picture.  I am hoping third year is the charm for my poppy that greens every year but no flower.  Last year there was a bud but nothing came of it.  I covered the tulips that were to bud as the temp was going down to 20 degrees that night. 

I put in the compost as Marg said that she added soil to her garden every single year.  I can see that.  Colorado is just not a natural garden environment like places in Illinois and Tennessee.

April 17

We are having warm weather. I talked to someone and they said I could put a few perennials in.  I saw some at King Sooper that looked so healthy and a good price ($7) so I got a five.  Mountain Blue, a delphinium and two snow flox.