Some early winter color.

This past weekend the plans for the front yard "overhaul" were officially started.   There will be less grass (as in none) and more planting beds and a picket fence.  We even ordered some grow lights and shelves so that I'll be able to start more from seed.  Our hope is that we can grow more vegetables in our front yard where it is full sun.  My hope is that I can convince my husband that he will get to be in charge of the vegetable garden, explaining that watering and weeding those beds will be a great time to unwind after a stressful day at work.  I even threw in the suggestion of having a beer while he did those things.  Now I hope that we'll have a nice dry week either late winter or early spring when we can get started. 
Until then we are having another nice stretch of dry sunny weather and everyone around here has headed out to their gardens to get a head start on weeding.  The Littlest Gardener and I worked in the side yard and path garden weeding and cutting back plants.  Again I was amazed at all that was going on.  Almost all of the Clematises have new growth, the ribes leaves are starting to open, the blueberry bushes all have leaf buds - some even beginning to open and more bulbs are making their way out of the ground.

 Hellebore 'Royal Heritage'

 Hellebore - this was a seedling from some of the 'Royal Heritage', I found lots of seedling in this area.

 Another Hellebore 'Blue Lady'

 The Greigii tulips that I found at the grocery store are coming up through Dianthus 'Sooty'.

 Purple Wood Spurge growing in a container has pretty purple new growth

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 Primroses sitting in the sun waiting to be planted.

 The Littlest Gardener planting more of the Sword Fern, I'm hoping some of them do come up.

 The Pansies seem to have recovered from the cold we had a while ago.

Violas in one of my "girl" planters.

I realize that a lot of the country is having terrible blizzards and ice, but hopefully seeing this little bit of color will help.  We are definitely still at risk of snow here, in fact it will be in the 20's the next couple of nights.  February is generally a very cold month here so hopefully all this winter color will survive whatever weather comes our way.

Warmest January on record - Fertilizer Friday.

It looks like some of us Pacific Northwesteners on our way to setting another weather related record. This January is on it's way to becoming the warmest January on record. During this past summer we hit the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle, then this past December we had record setting lows when an Arctic blast came through. While it's been kind of nice to have such a mild winter, I also know that many plants here need that winter chill to help set buds. We also need the cold to help get rid of many garden pests. I'm going to be very interested to see what this Spring brings.

Last year the iris reticulata was blooming on the first day of Spring. Now it's almost in bloom and Spring is still a ways off.

The Hellebore 'Royal Heritage' looks so pretty with the sun shining through it.

I don't think I'll get tired of looking at this 'Royal Heritage' variation. As the sun has been out, they have been lifting their faces more. I think this is my favorite flower picture of the year so far.

One of the Hellebores in my front yard seems to have perked up since I cut away the old foliage. It's flowers are beginning to lift up as well.

Seeing all this new growth and flowers has gotten me to thinking about starting to stock up on my fertilizer of choice: compost! There have been years I was too busy to have a chance to get a nice layer of it in my garden, but after seeing what a big difference it makes I'm already planning on when I will start to get some of that black gold into my garden.
Fertilizer Friday is hosted each Friday by Tootsie at Tootsie Time. Visit her to see what she's got happening in her garden or greenhouse as well as other gardeners from all over.