I'm still in the garden!

 I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted!  It has been so busy around here, I've barely had time to go on the computer let alone take pictures or blog.  Our weather has been just gorgeous, very summer like and it's hard not to be outdoors when it's like that.  After two awful springs in a row we are all celebrating all this sun and warm weather.  The Littlest Gardener has already been out playing in the sprinkler.  Last year I think it was July before that happened. 
I tried not to go overboard on the pictures, but it was hard not to.  There is just so much going on outside!

 We've been working on getting more planted around the picket fence out front.  I think it's going to look really pretty this year.  The Pink Dogwood ended up having a great bloom!  It's still covered in flowers.

 Deutzia 'Pink Minor' near the front door.  I moved it last year and it seems to love it's new spot.

 Some containers near the front door.

 Clematis 'Asao' is in the wine barrel planter in the previous picture.  The flowers are huge!

 The two raised beds out front are beginning to look like real veggie gardens!  Besides herbs there is spinach, beets, radishes and all kinds of squash plants in this one.

 The other bed is full of kale, chard, basil, peppers and hopefully carrots.

 The Lilac 'Ludwig Spaeth' is having it's best year ever.  The color is so bright and really grabs your attention.

 From the other side of the bed you can see how full it's gotten.

 The neighbor kitty found a nice shady spot under the pear tree.

 Alliums are coming up everywhere!

 Spanish poppies have a really pretty scent, bloom like crazy all spring and summer and I love their tissue paper appearance.

 Gracie found a warm spot on the gravel to plot her next escape.  Here Clematis, rose, Delphiums and phlox are filling in.

 A container I put together last year.  Lewisia is blooming.

 In a shady corner Clematis 'Miss Bateman' is covered in blooms.

 The shed garden is just packed with flowers!

 One of my favorite Columbines.

 The variegated Rhododendron has been here for three years and finally decided to bloom this year.

 We've had herons visiting and so the fish have been hiding a lot.  There is only one so far that I can't find.  After the last time we had heron problems I put an old plastic crate in the pond with plants on it.  It's a perfect hiding spot for the fish now, especially since it's covered in algae.

 The path garden has also taken off.  You can hardly walk down this part everything is so big.  I'm still hoping the Clematises will one day cover this arch.

 For now there are a few 'Nelly Moser' flowers blooming.

 A view of the path from the other direction.

 The raised beds on the side yard are full of Blueberry bushes.  I hope we get lots of berries this year!

 The chicks had their first night outside last night and did great.  I had been putting them out during the day and they loved it so much and hated being put back in their brooder.

 They are growing so quickly!  Now the house is empty of seedlings and chicks and it can get put back together again.  We are all enjoying the chicks.  They are so relaxing to watch.

Hope you lasted for the whole tour!  I realize I forgot to add the driveway garden.  I'll do a post on just that garden next time.  

How's your spring so far?

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

Up high and down low - Fertilizer Friday.

I love this time of year, I look up I see flowers and I look down and I see flowers! And of course everywhere in between has flowers or buds that are very close to blooming. But, one plant I've been anxiously waiting to see bloom is my Lilac. I've been patiently driving past many houses in town admiring their Lilacs and trying not to feel too jealous. I wonder if some of the homeowners even pay attention to them. Are they going out and smelling them? Cutting fresh bouquets of them? Well, my patience has begun to pay off...my Lilac finally is deciding to bloom.

Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) 'Ludwig Spaeth' is a beautiful deep purple and it sure has been worth waiting for. I am so lucky that it decided to bloom on some lower branches this year which makes it much easier to smell. I even saw blooms on the lower back which will be perfect to cut and bring inside.

And also blooming up high is the Pink Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). It's at it's peak right now. The windows at the front of the house look right out at it, and I find myself stopping and looking out frequently. It definitely has some years that bloom better than others, and this is a great year for it.

I just love those flowers!

At the base of the tree is Deutzia 'Pink Minor' which I showed about a week ago. It looks just perfect with the Dogwood, the flower colors are almost exactly the same.

The Iris from my sister's yard are getting flowers. Last year I just had a couple, this year I see quite a few buds coming up. I wasn't even sure when Irises bloomed here because I hadn't grown them before.

Saxifraga 'London Pride' has blooms! Linda brought me this when she came to visit. This is the neatest plant, I love the variegated leaves.

And over in the raised beds in our side yard up high the Fig tree 'Desert King' is leafing out and producing it's first crop of fruit which is called the breba crop. The breba crop grows on last years growth in the Spring. Another crop will grow later in the summer. 'Desert King' is a variety known to do well in the Pacific Northwest.

Down at the Figs feet are strawberries. This combination seems to do very well. The strawberries have lots of time to fruit before the leaves of the fig are fully leafed out.

Speaking of fruit the Meyer lemon tree which has been growing inside all winter in a pot has now moved back outside. That one little lemon is still growing (the Littlest Gardener's hand gives an idea of the size) and I'm guarding it with my life ☺

Fertilizer Friday is hosted each Friday by Tootsie at Tootsie Time. Visit her to join in or see who else is "flaunting their flowers."

"It's still February."

While outside so much the last week working in the yard I've been noticing how many plants seem to be in a hurry to start blooming. It seems like almost every day I've found something new beginning to leaf out or flower buds beginning to show color. They are making it hard to believe we still have 25 days of Winter left. While walking through a nursery on a sunny day last week I had to keep reminding myself, "It's still February, no reason to buy every plant I have on my list today, pace yourself." I was eying a Hydrangea 'Annabelle' (thanks to Edith Hope mentioning it in a post and it sounding like the perfect plant for a difficult area in my yard), but it was still sticks and not one leaf on it yet. Despite my excitement in finding it, I knew it was too early to buy it, especially since I couldn't tell if it was alive or not. "It's only February" I told myself, "still plenty of time to come back and find an 'Annabelle' that has signs of life."
I know that even if our Spring is early I still need to pay attention to the last frost date, which for my area is April 9th. I also need to remember that it's generally around Mother's Day or mid May when it's warm enough to plant things such as annuals or tomato plants outside here. Our Springs are generally not that warm and quite wet.
These plants are some of why it's hard to believe that it's still February:

Pink Flowering Currant (ribes sanguineum) is pretty close to my favorite blooming shrub. In another month or so it will be covered in drooping pink flowers. The flowers don't have any scent, but hummingbirds do fight over this shrub while it's in bloom. When I bought this plant 6 or 7 years ago it was a tiny 1 foot tall stick. I couldn't imagine it ever getting very big. It's now about 8 or 9 feet tall. It did take about three years before it began to bloom heavily, so be patient if you try this one. It's worth waiting for. I have it growing right under a large Pine tree and it does great there.

Mock Orange (Philadelphus coronarius) has the most delicious smelling blooms. This one has chartreuse colored leaves and just pops out in this part of the yard. The leaves tend to change to a more green color as the summer progresses, it may be because it doesn't get as much sun as it would like.

Lilac 'Ludwig Spaeth' ( Syringa vulgaris) buds are growing quickly. This is one I'll be concerned about if we get a late freeze. I moved this from the back yard a few years ago because it wouldn't bloom. It's gotten really tall and has lots of flowers now that it gets the full sun it needs.

The top of the Lilac is a favorite hangout for the birds visiting the bird feeders in the front yard. This guy was singing his heart out.

The Weeping Cherry tree is blooming a little early now. This was the first tree we planted about a year after we moved in to our house 10 years ago.

Two years ago we planted two Pear trees in our front yard, one for each daughter. It's important to plant different varieties that will cross pollinate each other. We're hoping to get our first pears this year.

The Water Hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos) is really beginning to bloom a lot now. They begin blooming when the water is about 50 degrees. I've told in earlier posts that I had read these blooms smell like vanilla. After I took this picture I picked this flower to give it a whiff. It does smell good, but I wouldn't compare it to vanilla. I think these flowers are so pretty, I love all the brown seeds contrasting with the white flower.

So while it does feel and look like Spring, it still is only February.