Getting started...

Today is a day of rain and fog and warmish temperatures. I've been away a week in Vancouver and have returned to find the garden a riot of green. The only thing in bloom is the columbine, which are blue-purple stars in the back yard. The hostas are mammoth and must be trimmed or else the flowers growing within the beds they are edging will be smothered. In general I believe in Darwinian gardening--the survival of what survives--but there is a limit. This afternoon some judicious thinning is in order.

But this lushness shows just how much greenery can fit on a small lot. It is more evidence that our innate preference for green landscapes can be nicely accommodated in a dense urban setting.