March sun!

 After record breaking rain in February and the first part of March (in the first week we got more than double the monthly average), we have finally had a break in the rain and clouds and have seen the sun!  Everything seems to be better when the sun comes out, at least that's how I feel, especially after so much rain.
One good thing about the ground being wet was that the weeds and other plants I wanted to dig up came out very easily!

The fish are much more active now.  Lots of bulbs poking up.

Golden Mock Orange leaves are so pretty when the sun shines through them.

Hellebore 'Cotton Candy'

Old fashioned Bleeding Hearts have really taken off growing.

The path garden.

Gracie liked the sun too.  

The Littlest Gardener got a new rabbit, she named him Huckleberry.  He is a Holland Lop, but his ears never lopped so the breeder sold him as a pet.  Apparently his father is the "top Lop" in the country.  He is very small and very sweet.

Rainbow the Brahma chicken has been hanging out in the nesting box lately.  I think she may be broody, which means she wants to hatch some eggs.  We have no rooster so that won't happen.

Lots of plants coming up.

I don't have good luck with daffodils, this is one of two.  Not sure why they never return the next year.

Last week I couldn't wait any longer and started some seeds.  I put row covers on and now a week later I already see some spinach sprouts!  My biggest gardening goal this year is to grow a good and productive vegetable garden.

The copper tape around the bed is to hopefully keep the slugs out.  I learned in the master gardener program that copper will repel the slugs, but you have to be sure there are no plants or anything else to make a bridge over the copper.  It will be a good experiment to see how well it really works this year.

Lots of fresh soil waiting for plants!

Cherry and plum trees are starting to bloom around here.

The new little pond with a glass float I bought at the Northwest Flower and Garden show.

Tiny tulips that add a lot of color!

The front porch.

We are trying something new this spring, a project that Sweet Pea wanted to do.  Once we get started I'll share what it is.
My sister, who moved to Vermont this winter, told us they got 19 inches of snow overnight!!   I can't even imagine, and that is just from last night.  I keep seeing on the news about all the snow and cold in the Midwest and back east.  Hopefully spring is on its way there soon too!
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Bursting with Flowers (and Chickens!)

 You know it's been a long time since you last posted when you start getting emails asking if everything is okay.  I appreciate those of you that were concerned with my whereabouts, it's nice to know that there are people out there that care!  Luckily everything has been fine.  Just busy with kids finishing up school, but luckily the summer break has now started and I hope to have time to blog and blog visit!
Our weather has been mostly wet and cool.  We have had the odd sunny day here and there, but they seem to be spread pretty far apart.  Over the weekend we had what the weather people are calling a "squall, much like you would see on the east coast".  It poured and poured and the wind blew and the power went out.  Then after a few hours the sun was trying to break through.  The day after that big rain storm the sun came out and I thought I would take some pictures.  Luckily just a couple of days earlier I had been out staking up many plants.  They are so top heavy and the rain keeps flattening them down.
These are just some of the "highlights".  Right now roses and Clematises are two of the types of flowers at their peak.

 This Lavatera was just planted last summer.  This was the only plant request my husband had for the front yard.  I think he made a great choice!

 The unknown pink rose which I'm pretty sure is 'Heritage'.

 'Lady Emma Hamilton'

 'Gertrude Jekyll'

 'Honey Perfume'

 'Kimberlina'

 'Julia Child' (with all the rain blackspot has been a problem on some of the roses)

 'Harlow Carr'

 'Benjamin Britten' (yes the color is that coral, and it smells so good, a new one this year)

 Clematis texensis

 Geranium 'Patricia'

 Geranium 'Johnson's Blue'

 Veronica

 Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'.  I planted these last year and am amazed how huge they got their first year, I can see why everyone raves about this grass.

Today we had some sun and thought it would be a perfect day for the chickens to have some time out of their coop.

 Tina Fey and Chirpy enjoying some wheatgrass.

 Is it just me, or are chicken butts really cute?

 The two younger chickens would not come out of the coop so the rest ventured around without them.

Sweet Pea decided that her rabbit Blackthorn needed a bigger hutch.  We put it together and then dug down about 4 or 5 inches and lined it with hardware cloth so he can't dig out.  He's been enjoying digging around and having more space.  It was so much fun spending time doing this project with her.  It was all her idea, including making the little walkway to his hutch.

We are looking forward to spending time outside as much as possible this summer.  The girls have many plans for what we should do, so I will try my best to post and to get around and visit your blogs.  Hope your summer is going great so far!!

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

Our newest members of the family.

This was the perfect weekend to add new members to our family.  Not only am I a mom to my kids, but a mom to our pets as well.  As many of you know our pet rabbit Cookie died unexpectantly about a month ago.  The girls were very sad and still talk about how much they miss him.  Sweet Pea decided she wanted another Holland Lop, so we were able to find a breeder and just picked him up early this morning.

This is Blackthorn the Holland Lop.  The breeder named him after a spring blooming flower, I looked it up and it's in the Prunus family.  Sweet Pea liked his name and is keeping it.

He was so happy to have so much open space to run and hop in.  His one ear likes to stand up, I think it gives him character.

Over the winter we lost quite a few fish for some reason.  My friend that lives nearby also lost most of their fish this winter.  Today we bought 4 new fish.  We found these koi at the local pet store, they were very inexpensive ($3 - $5 each).  These are the two the girls picked out.

I chose these two yellow ones.  The one on the right is a butterfly, but I think the other one is too although it was in a tank with just regular koi.  I chose them for their beautiful colors.  For some reason I love yellow fish.

Hopefully they'll like their new home.  There are only about 4 or so other fish in there now and maybe a couple of tiny babies that we had seen a month ago.

Hope you all get a chance to work in your garden this weekend, the sun is trying to come out here.  Happy Mother's Day!  

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

Buds, Bald Eagles and buddies.

We are nearing the end of the kids Spring Break from school.  So far our weather has been anything but spring like.  Yesterday alone we had sun, rain, hailstorms, thunder, lightening and then snow.  It's still been close to 10 degrees below normal.  Finally today we had a break in the rain, although very cold, I still wanted to see what the garden was looking like after all this crazy weather.  I was really happy to see that despite the weather the garden is still moving right along, a bit behind, but it's still going.

The first year for me to have the Greigii tulips bloom.  Are they usually this short?  The yellow is so bright.

Lots of tulips getting close to blooming.

One of the new Frittilarias from last year is close to blooming.

More Fritiallaria or Checkered Lily.

One of my new plants from the Northwest Perennial Alliance plant sale is this Tulipa turkestanica.

Magnolia 'Vulcan' is finally going to bloom.  This is it's third year in our yard.  Last year the buds were damaged by a late freeze.

Camellia japonica 'Kumasaka' with it's first flower opening.

Old-fashioned Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) are about a month behind, but they are finally close to blooming.

Yesterday I saw two Bald Eagles flying above our yard, today there were three and one seemed a bit smaller than the other two.  They appeared to just be soaring around and then eventually flew off.

Poor Gracie and Cookie haven't had much time to play because it's been so wet.  Sweet Pea got Cookie out to at least hop around the deck for awhile.  Gracie has gotten so good being around the rabbit, mostly just following Cookie around to smell him.

Tomorrow looks like the one and only day of sun this week so we'll be finding something to do outside.  Hoping that some of you are getting some spring like weather and enjoying the sun.

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