Happy Monday, GPODers!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Here in Connecticut, the warm weather is really amping up and spring seems to already be making way for summer temperatures. While I would be happy to have some more cooler days before stifling New England humidity rolls through, plants seem to be thriving with the 80°F days and bright sunshine after weeks of clouds and rain.

The warm and sunny spring weather in Connecticut has also been a boon to Debbie and her husband, Gerald, who are enjoying a lush garden already full of beautiful blooms.

Hi! I’m Debbie from Orange, Connecticut. My husband, Gerald, and I enjoy the beauty of nature and the outdoors, so we spend a lot of time in our gardens. We have been gardening around our home for the past 10 years.

Our property measures 1.4 acres and is two-thirds wooded. Our plant hardiness zone is 6b. We like using natural stones and rocks from our woods to landscape around our home and gardens. These are photos of our early spring gardens.

The blue forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica, Zones 5–9) love to spread and are so beautiful in early spring when not too much else is blooming.

In our “circle garden” are a variety of shrubs and perennials. In this picture, a purple-flowering clematis has grown up the trellis, and the pink and yellow foxgloves are starting to bloom. The pink rhododendron and the white ‘Mount Airy’ fothergilla (Fothergilla major ‘Mount Airy’, Zones 5–9) next to it are in full bloom.

Returning daffodils, hyacinths, and lambs’ ears (Stachys byzantina and cvs., Zones 4–8) are all blooming underneath our walking stick tree. We also planted spring violas that grace us with their beauty well into summer.

This photo shows part of the wall we built around our “circle garden” with stones from our woods. (Connecticut land is very rocky!). The small Japanese maple is a focal point and is surrounded by creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera, Zones 4–8), daylilies, evergreens, and ground covers. To the left of the maple is another walking stick tree of a different variety.

I was fortunate to photograph this red-bellied woodpecker on our feeder in front of the forsythia shrubs.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Happy gardening!

A gorgeous garden, Debbie and Gerald—thank you for sharing!

What is spring looking like in your neck of the woods? Have you still been chasing away the last bursts of snow or enjoying the warm temperatures and working tirelessly in the garden already? Let us know in the comments, or send in pictures of your spring garden to [email protected].

(P.S. If you’re struggling to compile images to send in an email, share photos with me via a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad).

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening!

Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here.