As my father used to say, "Spring has sprung!" Suddenly the garden is in full blooming rotation, and all the tasks I was supposed to have finished before this (pruning, clearing, planting, mulching) are not done. Oops! Luckily, I'm surrounded by lots of self-starters, plants that determine their own fate and seed themselves. Violets have spread along most of the paths, and I have a beautiful patch of variegated vinca that is producing loads of pale blue blossoms in a formerly bare spot under a cedar. The brightest points in the garden now are provided by wood poppies that have wandered wherever they want. Officially called Celandine poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum), these are native wildflowers that love dappled sunlight (and I seem to have lots of it). They bloom so generously and require so little care that I am always grateful to find they have popped up in a new place. I've been reading a fascinating gardening book, Cultivating Chaos, that expounds the theory that enriching landscapes with self-seeding plants is a way to support a thriving garden ecology and create unexpected beauty. I certainly have plenty of unplanned beauty in my garden (and here I thought I was just being lazy!).