Too early and right on time.

 We are having some amazingly mild weather lately, and from what I've been reading, so has a lot of the country.  I'd say many of us are due some mild weather after a year of real extremes.  I've been seeing posts and hearing people talking about some of the plants that are already showing buds or making their way up through the soil.  As much as I love seeing those signs of spring I'm a little nervous that we could and probably will get some really cold weather.  Some plants will be fine either way, but there are some that might not be.

 The main one I'm wondering about right now is this Magnolia 'Vulcan'.  I was hoping this might be it's big year to really put out some blooms since it's still fairly young.  It's already budding out and this seems far too early, then again I'm not experienced with Magnolias other than knowing that a freeze can kill the flowerbuds.

 In the same bed the Ninebark 'Little Devil' still hasn't lost it's leaves.  The Ninebark in my backyard dropped it's leaves weeks ago.

 Thinking the Pulmonaria seemed really early caused me to check back on my blog and see that they are actually right on time.  I have pictures of them blooming in late January.

 Violas haven't stopped since I planted them in fall.

 More Violas in another bed.

 I went out to the backyard and thought I smelled something good.  I went to check that the Sarcococcas are right on time and blooming like crazy.

 Why am I showing a picture of our bunny Blackthorn?

 Because Sweet Pea found a Hellebore (Helleborus x sternii) 'Blackthorn strain'.  She thought it was meant to be that we have that growing in our yard.  She used her own money to buy it and it's planted close to Blackthorn's hutch.

As I looked at our raised beds and noticed the Chard, Kale and beets growing I found two of these plants.  Since I've never grown it before I thought I would see if anyone else agreed that it was Pak Choi.  I started some from seed and had sprouts that were quickly mowed down by the slugs. It sure looks like the pictures I've found online.

Are things early, late or right on time where you are?

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.

The front yard in October.

We've been having some beautiful fall weather here.  Bright blue skies and sun, very cool in the mornings but warming into the low 60's during the day.  Yesterday I thought I'd better get the grass cut since it's growing so quickly right now and is always wet with a heavy dew, it's not going to dry out until next spring and will only get longer.  It seems like the lawn (weeds and moss) always grows the most in the fall.  This year we didn't get to the projects we'd hoped to accomplish in the front, but are hoping next year to remove a good amount of grass and reconfigure the front border bed some.  I'm sure I'll be asking for some ideas then.  We'll need to make a path through the bed somewhere and that's what I'm trying to decide when I look at it from the street side.

I don't usually include the front grass when taking pictures of the front of the house, but it looks so green and lush right now.  The Dogwood leaves are turning red now, and it won't be long before we're raking them up.

From the other end of the yard.  The tall back lit plant are Verbena bonariensis which are covered in flowers.  I will leave lots up for the birds to snack on this winter.

I haven't really shown this bed to the left much this year.  It used to be all Hellebores.  It would look great for the time they bloomed, but once they were done they would be covered in aphids and not the most attractive thing to see as you came to our front door.  I've left some Hellebores in, but have also added a variety of other shade plants which are all pretty tiny still.  Hopefully in spring it'll fill in more.  As you can see on the right the Japanese Maple looks as though it did die, and if it doesn't leaf out in spring we'll take it out.  I found some great ideas in a new garden magazine which involves a fountain rather than another tree.  I've accepted that trees just don't like this spot.

Black-eyed Susans still looking pretty.

I love how this Zinnia looks in front of the Black-eyed Susans.  This was about the only Zinnia to bloom this year.

This looks like a flower bud on the Magnolia 'Vulcan'.  Since it's never bloomed in the year it's been here I'm just guessing it's a bud.  It should bloom in spring.

The Coneflowers have gone to seed and are ready for the birds to enjoy.  They've already been eating the seeds from the ones in the back yard.

This morning is very foggy, but is supposed to clear up for another nice day.  I'm hoping to get to a nursery sometime this week.  I haven't been in so long I feel like I'm going through withdrawal, especially after seeing what finds others have been making at nurseries near them.  Hope you are having some nice fall days where you are, although I know that some gardeners have already seen their first snow of the year.

Out and about in the yard today.

Winter break was over yesterday and during it I hardly saw the outside. We spent almost everyday busy working on tiling the bathroom shower and I'm extremely happy to say, "We are done!!" It turned out really nice, but it was a lot of work. I'll post a picture of it soon, today I just wanted to focus on my yard. Even though it was misty and gray today it was refreshingly mild and felt so nice just to wander around the yard for a bit.
The front yard is showing lots of promise that there may be a bloom or two for Bloom Day next week.

Hellebores (H. orientalis) keep sending up more flower buds. I love the maroon color these will become.

In the same bed the white Hellebores are also sending up lots of flowers. In this bed there are about 6 large Hellebores. I notice every year that this one has the most flowers and another plant is always much later and has fewer flowers. I think the difference is the sun, the one that gets the most sun is the one with the least flowers.

This Magnolia tree 'Vulcan' caught my eye as I pulled in the driveway today. I caught a glimpse of the green and of course had to come over and check out all the new growth. We just planted it last year and it didn't get a chance to bloom. I hope it has lots of flowers this Spring.

Around the backyard a view down the path shows how gray and wet it is. I did see Bluebells coming up along with more daffodils. More Hellebores down the path have buds on them and the Sarcococca rusicfolia has many little white flower buds that should bloom this month.

One of my very favorite early Spring bloomers is the Pink Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum). The hummingbirds get very territorial over the beautiful pink flowers. There is lots of new growth along the branches of this shrub now. The Winter Hazel (Corylopsis) 'Buttercup', another early Spring bloomer also is getting quite a bit of new growth.

Next to the pond the Japanese Blood Grass has aged to a most beautiful rusty orange color, in fact the same color as the underside of the leaves of the Heuchera 'Marmalade' right next to it.

While I was by the pond I decided to clean the pump after the recent Heron visits (yes, it was back again!) really stirred up a lot of silt on the bottom of the pond. The great news is that I noticed that in addition to the 5 or so little fish he left, there were 2 very tiny fish that must have been hiding all this time. I hadn't seen them at all until today. They looked like baby Shubunkin, which are a type of goldfish that are white with a speckling of black and orange spots.
Yesterday Darla from Family and Flowers challenged us to end our post on something we are grateful for. I'm grateful for the time I get to spend in my garden and the feeling of rejuvenation that it gives me.