Here's what's blooming: Lots of wood hyacinths, mostly medium blue but some shorter white and pink. Tritelias, deep blue. Columbine in blue, purple, and pinkish white. White anemones that are incredibly invasive. A few daffodil stragglers from late plantings. A few tiny white alliums. A very few iris; something is up with them in all the beds, and none are producing as usual. Lily of the valley. A few money plants are still in purple flowers but others already have their "money," which months from now will turn translucent white. Some pinks that have survived for years are happily blooming, too. May apples I dug up from by a road somewhere are in fine fettle. Unfortunately, so are numerous invasive non-native bush honeysuckles, and I think I'm unlikely to have the strength to remove many more this season. They look charming, though. The wild phlox is blooming but hasn't tried to replicate although it is slowly getting larger. A white azalea is blooming, too.
The mountain laurel that the deer keep savaging has one bloom coming; I really want to fence it off but for now have used garlic spray. Yellow baptisia is beginning to open; the blue is not far behind. Lots of flowers are getting ready to pop, including the peonies.
I have no roses. Not enough sun.
As for the layout, we have no front yard as such; the front is light woods filled with daffodils struggling with the acid soil. I spent some time today weed whacking the hundreds of oak seedlings in hopes the deer will repeatedly eat whatever tender new leaves they put out. I find this is an effective and ecofriendly way of killing an oak seedling.
I put dirt against the house when we moved here, so the main garden is the house surround. Then I keep opening up new patches visible from the house. Mixed success with all, as the trees keep getting bigger and the sunlight keeps disappearing. Basically, we bought a house surrounded by woods and I am fighting reality. Most gardening is on some level.