Three years of blogging!

It's hard to believe that another year of blogging has gone by.  This past year of gardening has been great, many changes were made to our garden.  The past year of blogging hasn't been as productive for me though.  I've found that I just seem to have less and less time for it, and yet the thought of totally giving it up just can't happen.  I've made too many friends, friends that I've met at the beginning of my blogging and newer friends that I've met in the last several months. 
I appreciate each of you that visit my blog, especially when you take the time to comment or send me an email.  I apologize that I haven't been as good about returning visits, or at least commenting as often as I'd like.  Now that the holidays are over and there isn't as much to do outside I hope to be able to visit more often.
For now I thought I'd do a quick review of my garden. I like that my blogaversary coincides with the new year, it gives me a good excuse to go through pictures of my garden while there isn't much blooming outside.

January had Hellebores, Sarcococcas and Pansies blooming.

February was when the lawn went away for good!  We spent many hours outside, much of it in freezing cold weather and snow getting the job done.  We put up a picket fence, built raised beds and spread gravel around the beds.

March was when the rest of the fence was finished.  My husband and his Dad built the gates and arbor together.

April shows the pond garden waking up.  I love when the bulbs are blooming and there's lots of fresh green foliage around.

May in the shed garden's first spring was very colorful!

June in the front garden is one of my favorite times.  Here you can see the painted picket fence and gravel that was spread where the grass had been.

July and the pond garden is very lush and full.  We had record breaking rain and cool weather over the spring and much of the summer.  Most of the garden didn't seem to mind although it was a tough year to start vegetable gardening.

August and the new raised beds in the front yard were finally producing vegetables for us.  Squash, zucchini, beans and Chard all did really well.

September is when I decided to redo the driveway bed.  This area had really been ignored and need an overhaul.  It now should have much more interest year round rather than the middle of summer only.  I'm still trying to figure out where I can squeeze another rose in here...

October shows some of the rearranging in the pond garden.  I fell in love with grasses this past fall and added quite a few of them throughout the yard.  We had a beautiful fall, much warmer and drier than the previous one.

November in the path garden shows lots of green still and the beginnings of the leaves that drop from the trees.  It really doesn't change that much during the year down here, other than shrubs and spring blooming perennials.

December, on Christmas Eve I had a 'Kimberlina' rose blooming!  I'm always impressed with how long roses will bloom even after some very heavy frosts.  Seeing that pink amidst the brown mushy plants nearby was very cheering!

As usual, once the holidays are over, I'm already on the countdown to spring and I can't wait to see what changes this year will bring.  Happy New Year!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Lucky me!

I sure have had a string of good luck lately.  In a matter of about 2 weeks I won not one, but four giveaways!  I've signed up for many giveaways over the past two years of blogging and have won a couple.  But imagine my surprise and excitement when it seemed like every time I checked back to see who the winner was I saw my name.

First it was the $100 Proven Winners giveaway on Heather's blog Dusty Bay.  I'll be sure to post pictures of the plants when they arrive.  Heather has a great blog and is another Pacific Northwesterner and lives up in Canada.  Take a visit to see her beautiful flower and plant posts.  Lots of great plant information there.

Then it was Becca's giveaway on A Southern Garden by Becca.  Becca is in Alabama and I love seeing how different it is down there.  She is a very good hearted person and always has something kind to say.  She also has the cutest dog Buddy who is her garden buddy.  Becca was having a blogaversary giveaway and look at all the things she sent.  I'm totally hooked on the butter pecan coffee, the smell is unbelievable.  Just opening the box the scent of butter pecan started making me hungry.  Now I have to figure out how I will get more of it :)

Next, I found out I won Linda's giveaway on Gardening by Trial and Error.  Linda is hilarious in both her blog and her comments.  I was so lucky to get to meet her last year when she drove all the way up from southern Washington to my house.  She came loaded with plants and seeds to share.  I'm waiting to see how the Siberian irises look when they bloom this year.  We like comparing what's blooming in each others gardens during the year since we are in the same state yet about 3 hours driving distance from each other.

Finally I got an email from Phillip of Dirt Therapy that I won a book from his giveaway.  Phillip is also from Alabama and has a beautiful gardens that he shares with his fantastic photography.  He also shares delicious sounding recipes with pictures of the final product.  I only wish I enjoyed cooking as much as gardening.

Even though I've only met Linda in person, I feel a real connection to my fellow garden bloggers.  Some I've gotten to know a little more through comments on each others blogs, emails and Facebook.  There are so many good and generous people out there in the gardening world, I feel privileged to have gotten to know so many and be able to count them as friends.
Today I'm heading to the Northwest Perennial Alliance plant sale and am hoping to meet up with Alison of Bonney Lassie.
Oh, yeah and one more good thing... today is the first day of Spring!!
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

My second blogaversary!

Two years already?  It's hard to believe that it's already been that long!  I remember first looking at a few garden blogs that I had come across that winter two years ago while I sat inside and thought of my garden.  It didn't take long for me to decide to start one of my own.  Finally other people that felt the same way about gardening that I did.   That winter we had two years ago was a very cold and snowy one and felt like it would never end so garden blogs helped get me through.   I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I had no idea how much starting a garden blog would add to my life.  I've gotten to know numerous bloggers around the world and even met some in person.  The fun of starting your own blog is not only having people visit your blog, but visiting other blogs and learning about gardening in other parts of the world.  I've learned about plants that I never knew I needed to have ☺.  My addictions to roses, Clematis, Heucheras, geraniums, Agastaches and other plants has taken off since I started blogging.  I've also learned about greenhouses, rain barrels, chicken farming, vegetable gardening, container gardening, indoor plants and turning one persons junk into garden art.   Gardeners are some very smart people!

I've seen some other gardeners do a "year in review" so I thought I'd try that for this blogaversary.  It was hard to limit myself to one picture per month!

January 2010 - Hellebores blooming.

January this year was a mild one, some days were warmer than what we'd end up having in spring.  Winter sowing was started in January.  Flowers blooming during the month were: Pansies, Hellbores and Sarcococca ruscifolia.

February 2010 - mild enough to start removing grass to enlarge garden.

February was still nice enough to work in the garden.  I started working on the front garden and widening it on the side towards the house.  Sweet Pea and I also started what would become the shed garden.  We attended the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and the Great Backyard Bird Count took place this month (on the sidebar you can see the dates for the bird count this year).  More seeds were started indoors.  Flowers blooming were:  Tete-a-tete Daffodils, Pansies, Hellebores, Camelia 'Marie Bracey', Pulmonaria.

March 2010 - The garden shed I'd always wanted was built!

March was exciting for me as I finally got the garden shed I'd hoped for for many years.  I'm still working on how I will "decorate" the inside.  Cookie the rabbit joined the family.  Some flowers blooming were Bleeding Hearts, Water Hawthorn, Primrose, Daffodils, Camellia 'Kumasaka', Muscari and Winter Hazel.

April 2010 - White-Crowned Sparrow stops in for a visit.

April was the month that the new shed was painted between rain showers and the pond got a much needed deep cleaning.  Some flowers blooming were Forget me nots, Knautia, Columbines, Meadow Rue, Solomon's Seal and Epimedium.

May 2010 -  The raised beds in the side yard are filling in.

May was when the flowers really seemed to take off blooming, Snowball bush, Jacob's Ladder, Columbines, Clematises, Lilac 'Miss Canada', Nepeta, Lady's Mantle, Rhododendrons, Red Valerian, Golden Mock Orange and Bearded Irises were some.

June 2010 - One of my favorite months in my garden.

June is always my favorite time of the year in my garden.  I've been trying to be better about finding more that will continue blooming past June.  It's just that so many of my favorite flowers happen to bloom in June.  Some of the flowers blooming were Asiatic lilies, roses, Baptisia, Spiderwort, Geum, Hydrangeas, Clematis, Fleabane, Oriental and Breadseed poppies, Salvias, Penstemons, Scabiosa, Heucheras, Geraniums, Lupine, Veronica, Campanulas, Peonies and Foxgloves.  So many of my favorite cottage garden flowers this month!  June was a wet month, but that's not that unusual around here.

July 2010 - The path garden looks better than ever, an upside to all the rain we had in the spring.

July was when the sun finally came out and when it did it was hot, the plants almost went into shock.  Some of the flowers in bloom were roses, Agastaches, Monardas, Daylilies, Beautyberry, Larkspur, Clematises, Hydrangeas, Phlox, echinacea and Aster.

August 2010 - A corner of the yard that used to be a difficult area, has turned into one of my favorites parts of the backyard.

August ended up being a wet month.  I noticed I only posted 7 times and that I didn't participate in garden bloggers bloom day.  I was a bit frustrated with the weather we'd been having.  A strangely mild winter followed by a very wet spring, a few weeks of above average heat and then back to rain.  Many of the seeds I had started never did germinate or were very stunted.  Still the garden was blooming with hardy fuchsias, roses, Salvia, Rudbeckia, Scabiosa, Liatris, Verbena bonariensis, Oriental lilies and Campanulas.

September 2010 - The front garden is still full of lots of color.

September was another wet month, not like our usual September that can be very nice.  I only posted a few times this month and didn't join in bloom day either.  This was the first year that I remember not getting any tomatoes  My garden still rewarded us with Clematis, geraniums, Rose of Sharon, Toad Lilies, Calendulas and Cimicifuga blooms.

October 2010 - The planning I did in planting around this side of the garden has paid off.

October had the garden winding down, but there was still lots of interest from foliage and flowers such as Sedums, Chocolate Eupatorium, Heucheras, Linarias on their second round of blooms, Choysia ternata, roses and a Primrose that wouldn't quit.

November 2010 - The first snow of the year brings Anna's Hummingbirds to the garden to drink from the feeders.

November we had our first snow and arctic freeze.  The Anna's Hummingbirds were hanging around the feeders.  I was able to get the spring bulbs planted.  A few blooms before the freeze were roses, Lavender, Abelia, Red Valerian, Tiarella and fuchsias.

December 2010 - The path garden still has lots of life left in it despite the cold weather and record breaking rainfall.

December we had record amounts of rain, more snow and very cold weather.  I think I was more excited about spring than I've been in a long time.  I was happy to find not only Pansies blooming but Sarcococca ruscifolia as well.

Thank you to all of you who have stopped by to visit and leave comments.  I enjoy every single one of them.  I hope you all have a happy and healthy new year with lots of time to garden!

Meeting Rain Gardener.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting another Pacific Northwest gardener. Linda (Rain Gardener) of Gardening by Trial and Error drove all the way here (about 3 hours!) to visit the Littlest Gardener and I. We had been trying to set up this visit for many months. In fact so many months ago we started planning that the driving directions I gave her were no longer good. Unfortunately we didn't figure that out until after she got lost trying to follow the directions I had given her.
I had a feeling from our interactions through blogging and emailing that conversation would be easy with her, and I was right. We talked about gardening, blogging and family for a good 2 hours. Originally we had planned to possibly visit a nursery, but the weather was cool and rainy so instead this time we just talked.
We also had our very own plant swap. Each of us had admired plants on each others blogs and this was the perfect way to be able to dig up some plants and share our seeds with each other.

Linda brought me Siberian Irises, Wild Iris, Yellow flag iris and a Saxifraga 'London Pride'. She was so thoughtful and even brought my girls their own Sedums because she knows they like to help in the garden. I'm very excited to find places for all of them in my garden.

She also brought lots of seeds and made this pretty card. I love how she printed pictures of the flowers to put on the envelopes. I plan to winter sow all but the Poppies this weekend. Those I will save for a little longer and just direct sow them.

It's been so much fun getting to know other gardeners through blogging and I've been even luckier to actually get to meet some in person. Hopefully Linda will forgive my old and out of date directions and visit with us another time when there is more going on in my yard.