Happenings in the garden.

 Our New Year started off with absolutely beautiful weather.  Mild and sunny, it was too nice to not go outside in the garden.  I enjoyed the first hour in peace and then decided it was far too nice for anyone else in my family to sit inside and got them all to join me, although they didn't do any gardening.  Between watching my oldest daughter and my husband play a game of HORSE (a basketball game in which she made him try to make baskets while saying "Meow" loudly or have a stuffed animal balancing on his head), my youngest taking me around to ask what things were and the dog escaping from the yard three times I actually got quite a bit done.
It was a good time to see the newest happenings in the garden.  I was surprised to find tulips and Dutch Iris coming up and some of the Hellebores pretty far along.

 Because it really hasn't been all that cold the ornamental Kale still looks really pretty.

 Chard from the Seattle Tilth sale last May is still producing.  I just checked to see that their edible plant sales are not that far away.  Here's a link to their website.

 Kale that Nola gave me is starting to grow.  I hope the slugs don't eat it all though.

 Primroses are budding and

 blooming!  The slugs have found them too.

 Not a great picture, but you can see how far up these Hellebore buds are.

 The row of Sarcococca that I planted along the deck is finally starting to look like what I imagined after planting it many years ago, and is full of buds about to bloom.

 The entry garden actually looks good compared to how it looked when I first went out that morning.  There are new Hellebores planted along with a small Sarcococca.  Heucheras along the edge will soon be joined by Grape Hyacinths and whatever other bulbs I've forgotten about that are in there.

 Look at the amazing sunrise this morning!  The benefits of the kids going back to school include seeing the sunrise after sleeping in for the last two weeks.  It's now pouring rain, but it was nice while it lasted!

 I am so excited for Spring, have I mentioned that before? 
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

A good day!

I try not to complain too much on here about things other than the weather, but the last couple of months just seemed to have been one thing after another around here. Nothing serious any of them, but after a continual stream of something expensive breaking or someone being sick I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and stressed last night. I remember thinking to myself last night, "Please let tomorrow be a good day!"
Going in to wake Sweet Pea this morning, never an easy task, I raised her shade only to be greeted by this beautiful sunrise:

It was the most bright red sky and the fog had settled in the low areas behind the school yard.

Just to the right of the sunrise the fog was heavy but the red sky still glowed. How could something this pretty not signal a good day?
Later in the day after returning from a nursery where I found a beautiful double Hellebore that I'd been looking for, I went outside in the backyard to do a little cleanup. (The Hellebore is still in bud, but I will show pictures when it opens.)

As I looked across the pond I realized that a couple of Water Hawthorn flowers had opened with more buds coming through the surface of the water.

A Primrose along the path that was planted last year is just about to bloom.

The Corsican Hellebore is opening more too.

The buds on this Oxalis crassipes 'Rosea' seemed to have appeared overnight. It isn't unusual for this Oxalis to bloom in the Winter, but I hadn't seen flowers on it for quite a long time.

Another Pulmonaria bud from a division I made last year. This probably isn't that early either early, maybe a couple of weeks. Still I was very happy to see it.

And the Iris reticulata that I shared in bud late last week, has now bloomed. They remind me of a watercolor.

An unplanned pairing; the sign and the Iris, but a perfect combination I think!

Yes, today was a good day. I hope it was a good day for everyone else too!

The garden didn't go on vacation.

The first thing I usually do when we've been gone is to see how things are looking in the backyard. It's surprising what changes can take place in 4 or 5 days. We were lucky to come home to some mild temperatures and even a peek of the sun. While we were gone though I heard we had some strong winds and quite a bit of rain which made me more anxious to see how things were looking outside. I'm always a little worried that a tree or fence may have blown over or that a raccoon has punctured a hole in the pond liner and it will be empty. Luckily aside from a few small things blowing off our deck everything looked good.

The first thing I noticed on my way outside was that the Amaryllis 'Piquant' bloomed. There are 4 lightly scented flowers on the stalk. What a nice way to be greeted.

I found Primroses blooming in Sweet Pea's garden. She planted these all last winter and even in all the shade they're in, they have quite a few flowers.

The heavenly scent of the Sarcococca ruscifolia carried across the yard, it took me a minute to realize what I was smelling. When we left they had just started to bloom and the scent wasn't that strong.

Even more exciting are that the Hellebores 'Royal Heritage' are blooming! Isn't it beautiful?

Another 'Royal Heritage'. I found these a few years ago at a grocery store and found 3 plants inside the one gallon container. The third one hasn't bloomed yet this year.

One more Primrose along the path is getting ready to bloom. I'd seen Primroses at the store recently but thought it was too early to plant them. I guess if the Primroses in my yard are already blooming it might not be too early to add some new ones.

While outside I thought I'd see if anything was happening with the winter sowing I had started a week earlier. I was very surprised to see that the Dwarf Morning Glory from Lona had already sprouted!
I'm sure glad that while we were gone enjoying ourselves the garden didn't take a break.

Fertilizer Friday - First Hellebore of the year!

The first Hellebores of the year are blooming here. The ones in my backyard seemed to have started coming up early this year and I've been checking on them the last couple of times I've gone out to look around. They bloomed just in time for the first Fertilizer Friday of 2010.

I turned this Hellebore (H. orientalis) bloom up so I could get a good picture of the inside of it. This plant was a seedling from one of my original plants in my front yard. I shared pictures of the parent plants on my previous post. As I was crouched down taking pictures I noticed that this plant has seedlings underneath it. Pretty neat that I will have 3 generations of them in my yard.

Since most Hellebore flowers face the ground I just held my camera under and took a picture not knowing how it would turn out. I saw that there were several aphids hanging out inside the flower. They can be a problem with Hellebores, although it's usually mid summer that I start seeing them.

Some of our Primroses already have buds on them!

A Pansy in Sweet Pea's newly rearranged fairy garden.

Another Pansy in one of the deck planters. There are quite a few Pansies blooming in containers now.

I thought I would show what we were working on the last few weeks. The old tile had been there for probably 20 + years and was very outdated, ugly and cracked. The picture doesn't really capture the color of the tile or glass tiles very well, they are a bit more vibrant in person. Things I learned to do on this project: Demo the old shower, solder copper pipe (I mostly assisted on this, but I'm sure I could do it myself now), hang cement board, use thin set to set tiles and grout. I already have big plans to try and use my new soldering skills to make a copper trellis/obelisk this year.

I have to keep reminding myself that it's still Winter and we can still have lots of cold weather, including snow, coming. For now I'll just enjoy these very early signs of Spring in the garden.
Visit Tootsie at Tootsie Time and see what other gardeners have blooming inside or outside now.