Getting ready to get to work.

After a rainy weekend it looks like the sun will be out for the next several days.  The rainy weather was perfect though for more planning of the front garden.  My husband aka the Muscle spent a lot of time measuring and plotting out just where everything will be going.  This is getting very exciting knowing that the dream of a picket fence and more gardening space is becoming a reality.  We will all get to use our muscles over the next month as we begin the work, most of which will be good old manual labor.
I could see out my bedroom window over the weekend that another Hellebore has started blooming, so when I went out to take some before pictures of the front yard I walked through the backyard to take a look.

Hellebore 'Mardi Gras Double' is just as pretty as I remember it.

Pretty from any angle, I realized just how hard Hellebores make us work for a good picture of their face.

Holding the camera underneath for a picture shows a bug's eye view of the flower.

The lighting on the pond was very pretty today.  The Dutch Iris foliage is up all around the pond.

A view down the side yard shows some of the picket fence sections that will enclose the front yard.  It will eventually be painted white and is much easier to install in sections rather than trying to do it picket by picket.  Luckily I had just cleaned this area up a week ago, it may be awhile before I can do much else over here.

While at Michael's Craft store I found a few new garden additions.  I plan to hang the little sign on the picket fence gate.

Tomorrow if the weather holds I will begin removing the stone edging from where the path will cut through the front border.  Next will be moving some plants.  This isn't the best time of year for that, but around here the saying with gardeners is "as long as the ground isn't frozen it's okay to move plants".  Now we'll just hope the ground doesn't freeze after they are moved.