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.

January 2011 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

After the snow, rain, cold and wind we've been having I had to wonder if there would be a flower blooming at all right now.   Today is the first bloom day of 2011 and I'm happy to have a few flowers to share.  I looked back at last year's January bloom day post and found that the same flowers were blooming, just more of each of them.

Sweet Box or Sarcococca ruscifolia started blooming at the end of December.  The scent from these tiny flowers is delicious.

Now imagine a whole row of them blooming at once... Yum!

Hellebore 'Blue Lady' is the only Hellebore blooming but the buds are up on most of the others so it shouldn't be too long.

The only Violas blooming now, the rest are still on a break since the first freeze in November.  Hopefully they'll get back to work and start blooming soon.

The Pansies seem to be having a tough time too with the weather, not many are blooming right now.  I did find one very tattered purple Pansy in the front that must have self seeded and the hummingbirds seem to love it.

And speaking of self seeding just look at where this breadseed Poppy decided to grow.  This is the base of the basketball hoop.  What a strange place to try to grow, and it's also the only poppy seedling I've seen.  It has survived snow and freezing in it's plastic growing spot.

Another exciting find was that the Bleeding Hearts have started to pop up.  I found that they were doing the same thing last winter at this time, so they are right on track.

Join Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what she and other gardeners have blooming right now in their gardens.

Day after Christmas blooms!

We had a very nice Christmas yesterday with my family.  The Littlest Gardener spent the day in her new Rapunzel costume (and is still in it now) and Sweet Pea has been enjoying her new game.  The garden fairies left a gift for the girls under the tree, it's a door that goes at the base of a tree so they can make a home inside.  Once we get it hung I'll share some pictures of it.
Our weather today has been all over the place; windy, rainy, sunny and COLD!  They are talking snow for the middle of the week.  I thought I'd take a quick walk through the back garden to see if anything had changed, and happily there has been a few changes.  It was still windy and getting late in the day, but I was too excited not to take pictures.

I've got flowers blooming!  The Sarcococca ruscifolia or Sweet Box is already blooming and smells so good!  This plant lives close to some large evergreen trees and does really well.  The berries (which aren't edible) are from last years flowers, this shrub is very slow growing and evergreen.  The delicious scent carries throughout the yard.  I'm thinking I will add one to the entry garden that I'm redoing.

The Hellebore 'Mardi Gras Double' that I planted last year has buds coming up.  Click here to see what it will look like in bloom.

A Hellebore starting to open!

Daphne x transatlantica 'Summer Ice', a pretty evergreen shrub, is starting to bloom again.  It blooms almost year round and like the Sarcococca has a wonderful scent.  I highly recommend both of these shrubs for some winter color and fragrance.

I love how this container is looking.  There is a Viola tucked in here, but it's not blooming right now.

I had mentioned some Hellebores that I had been visiting at the nursery a couple of weeks ago.  My husband told me to go buy them for my Christmas present, so here they are waiting for their new home in the front entry garden.  'Pink Marble' and 'Pink Frost' are the two I chose, can you tell I had my 4 year old daughter with me who insisted we needed them to be pink?  I've seen pictures of both of these on blogs and am happy that they will now be in my garden too.

I hope you all had a nice weekend and maybe even had a nice surprise in your garden.  

Ready for change.

Normally fall isn't a season that I get really excited for, especially this time of it since a lot of the color has finished and it mostly means clean up.  For some reason this fall has me really excited though, probably because it means it's time for change.  I think like the old leaves falling and the spent perennials being cut back I feel as a gardener like I'm leaving a summer of gardening disinterest behind and am already looking forward to next spring and the changes it will bring.  I've already started some planning of rearranging plants, removing grass, more substantial container plantings and maybe even that picket fence I've been dreaming of for years will go up next year.  This quote pretty much says it all:

"Autumn is a season followed immediately by looking forward to spring."  - Doug Larson

We lucked out after a night of rain to have the clouds clear a bit and the sun come out.  I couldn't wait to get outside and start cleaning the leaves up.  The small Japanese Maple leaves seem to stick to the dog and the kids and there's always a small trail of them just inside the door.

The pond is now ready for winter.  The pump was cleaned, leaves and pine needles scooped out and any annual water plants have been removed.  To read the post I did last year on how I get the pond ready for winter go here.

The whole family pitched in to clean up as many leaves as possible from the deck and path.  There are still some more on the tree, but the majority fell after all the rain we had a couple of nights ago.

Some pretty fall color on the Winter Hazel (Corylopsis).

I love seeing that the Sarcococca/Sweet Box already has buds forming for the delicious flowers that will bloom around January.  Those flowers then become the purple berries that you can sort of see in this picture.

Sweet Pea bought the Mexican Feather Grass with her own money.  I wasn't sure where to plant it so it's in a container on the deck now.  I may regret letting it go to seed, but I'm really enjoying seeing it blow in the breeze.

A few of the containers on the deck.  I didn't used to plant much in containers for fall or winter, but the last couple of years I've done a lot more and really enjoy seeing something colorful growing when most of the garden is sleeping.

While I was out cleaning I noticed how many plants and shrubs have already started setting their buds for spring.  Even though I know we still have half of fall and all of winter left I can't help but already to be looking forward to spring.  In the meantime I'll be pulling out the gardening books and catalogs so I can keep dreaming and planning.  And I wouldn't even mind seeing some snow this year to help make the winter a little more interesting.

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.

January 2010 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on a Fertilizer Friday.

Two days where gardeners share their blooms have coincided this Friday, today it's Bloom Day and Fertilizer Friday. Our weather has cooperated very well this past week and we've had nice mild weather, although very rainy, which allowed me to get a few pictures of the newest flowers. I've got some things blooming inside as well as outside this month.

Starting inside is my first Amaryllis 'White Christmas'. This was actually the last one to sprout, but the first one to bloom. It's got another stalk of flowers coming up as well.

The Meyer Lemon tree is blooming like crazy. The whole room smells so sweet from it. I'm not able to tell yet whether any lemons have started yet.

Outside more and more Pansies are blooming. These are in the window boxes under our dining room window.

Another Pansy in one of the deck planters.

Sarcococca ruscifolia or Sweet box has begun blooming! What a delicious smell these have. The flowers are tiny but very strongly scented. You can see the berries that form after the flowers have finished blooming.

Hellebores in the backyard are blooming. This plant is further along than the rest, but the others look like they should bloom in the next week or two.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is hosted on the 15th of every month by Carol of May Dreams Gardens, visit her to see what she and other gardeners have blooming. Fertilizer Friday is hosted each Friday by Tootsie at Tootsie Time where she asks gardeners to "flaunt their flowers." Visit her as well to see other gardeners blooms.
I won't be around this weekend, but will be back to see everyone's blooms early next week!

Still frozen.

We've continued to have below normal temperatures here. Last night was down into the teens which is very unusual for this time of year. The freezing weather has pretty much finished off any remaining blooms and buds on the few plants that normally would be blooming. The hardy fuchsias and roses will usually bloom through December, but not this year. I was hoping to have a few flowers for bloom day next week, I think maybe the Daphne 'Summer Ice' may be about it.

I was able to get more good pictures yesterday of the Anna's hummingbird that has been visiting. She's been either in the apple tree or the feeder all day yesterday and today. Another one has tried to join her, but she isn't feeling in the sharing mood I guess. I did some reading on how Hummingbirds survive in freezing temperatures on this website. Apparently the hummingbirds perch on a branch at night and fluff up their wings and lower their body temperature from about 102F degrees to 54F degrees. They appear dead while they are sleeping, but as they wake up their body starts shivering to raise their body temperature back up. I also found that this process is called noctivation.

'Gold Cone' Juniper was planted about a month ago, I was hoping it would get some more time to settle in before the really cold weather got here, but it looks good. I noticed some new blue-green growth on the tips recently.

The Sarcococca ruscifolia doesn't seem the least bit affected by the freezing weather. It's flower buds continue to grow alongside some berries left from the Spring.

It hasn't drooped or had it's leaves curl like the rhodies and Camellias have.

The Corsican Hellebore is the only Hellebore that's not lying flat on the ground. The rest (H. orientalis) had started to send flowers up, but they look like they need a little warmth to perk them back up.

The pond and waterfall are mostly frozen still. The fish aren't moving much, but every so often one takes a very slow swim across the bottom of the pond. I tried to upload a video of one of the fish swimming, but it was taking much longer than usual so I finally gave up.

This little Chickadee was walking across the ice this morning while the Juncos figured out that standing on the waterfall rocks was an easier way to find unfrozen water to drink. The weather is supposed to get a little warmer, up to 40 degrees!

We've been really busy lately getting ready for Christmas. I've been trying to do as much blog visiting as I can work in around shopping, decorating and baking along with the usual things going on around here. I love seeing what's happening in everyone's gardens now that it's winter. It's fun seeing the variety of weather going on now too. Some parts of the world are getting to see Spring flowers while many of us have seen cold weather and snow. So I may be slow to get around to visit, but I'll be there. I hate to miss anything.