It's only just begun...

 What a week it was around here last week.  It was very full of field trips (one for each girl on the same day and I drove on both!), a school choir concert, sports and ballet and my husband's surgery.  I knew there would be no time outside during that week and since the weather wasn't that great I didn't miss much.  My husband did amazingly well with his surgery and while he rested and recuperated over the weekend I played out in the sunny yard.  Saturday I spend working in the front yard and Sunday was spent around the pond.

 I scooped and scooped out the pond, cleaned the filter, trimmed the plants and cleaned off the waterfall.  It looks so much better.  Unfortunately this is string algae's favorite time of year and it has just taken off.  I spend much of the spring scooping it out of the pond.  I just love that our neighbors Forsythia is right where we can enjoy it.  The gold Mock Orange's leaves and daffodils pop with it in the background.

 Marsh marigold has been blooming for weeks, but now that the pot has been cleaned up the flowers can actually be seen.

 I put the pond floats back in.  The one in the middle is new this year, I bought it at the Flower and Garden show.

 This may not look like much now, but I spent a long time getting the purple oxalis up from next to the edgers.  I also cut the dead branches off the Daphne 'Summer Ice' and transplanted an offshoot from it.  It isn't variegated but otherwise looks the same.  Those Violas have been blooming almost all winter.

 Cleaned up the edges here too.  I love how the shed garden looks in spring, lots more to come here too.

 You can see this Ribes sanguineum 'Kind Edward VII' in the previous picture to the right.  This one has grown so quickly.

 Okay, so I lied when I said I got nothing down outside last week.  I added a long shelf in the shed and made a shorter one on top of the two clay pots.  I've been having fun "decorating" and organizing.  One day I'd love to paint it white inside.

 A view out of the shed.

 The path garden is starting to fill in.  I'd like to focus on this area this year.  I'm trying to convince my husband to remove the deck, so far he has agreed to taking off the far half.  I would prefer a stone patio and no deck at all.  But I guess he should have some say in how our garden looks.

 At the end of last summer I pulled up a currant bush that looked horrible and moved the Winter Hazel and Bleeding Heart to new places here.  I was wondering how the Winter Hazel would do this spring and it seems to be blooming better than it ever has.

 Winter Hazel (Corylopsis) 'Buttercup' has the most delicate butter yellow flowers.

 The Littlest Gardener is thrilled to see Grape Hyacinths popping up.  This is one flower I allow her to pick all she wants.  We seem to have them coming up everywhere and they look so cute in spring bouquets.

 One of the few Daffodils that returned.  Other than Tete-a-tetes I give up on Daffodils.  They either send up only foliage or the squirrels take them.

So, the spring flower show has begun along with a little bit of warmer temperatures.  I'm really excited to see the changes that seem to happen overnight this time of year.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

A flowery Fertilizer Friday.

I've been continuing to get out in the garden and get as many chores done as I have time. One job I had to do was clean out two of the birdhouses that bumblebees have decided they want to live in. I've only had this problem once before, but this year with two being claimed by bees already I had to do something about it before it was too late. It looked as if the bees were using the actual birds nests made in previous years to build their own nest in. I certainly didn't want to (and didn't) kill the bees, just let them know they needed to find another place to live. Once the nests were cleaned out the bees buzzed around for a little while, and I haven't seen them near the houses since. I also rubbed soap on the inside roof of the houses because I read that will help deter bees. Hopefully it works and the birds will still come and use the houses. If anyone has any other tips to help I'd love to hear them.

Now it's time to show what's blooming this Friday in my garden:

Leopard's Bane (Doronicum orietale) has not been an easy plant for me. I've tried growing them several times and this is the first one that has made it a full year. They do not like to be in dry soil, and that has probably been the reason it has disappeared in other places. My husband thinks it looks far too much like a dandelion, but I think the flowers are pretty. I'll take a picture of it once it's in full bloom, the flowers are daisy like.

Drumstick Primula (Primula denticulata) just starting to bloom.

Don't you love when your neighbor has something pretty blooming in their yard that you can enjoy too?! I don't have the space for a Forsythia, but our neighbor's shrub is right next to the low part of our fence so we can see it almost as well as if it was in our own yard.

Winter Hazel (Corylopsis) 'Buttercup' is just beautiful this year. I keep going by to admire it since last year it hardly bloomed.

The Weeping Cherry tree is in full bloom now with lots of bees visiting it. The Littlest Gardener stood under it with a stick knocking petals down saying, "It's snowing!" That's as close as we've gotten to snow this winter.

Anemone Blanda has started popping up around the front garden.

One of my favorites Old Fashioned Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra spectabilis).

And the Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) is getting closer to blooming. I love how it looks against the bark of the Ponderosa Pine.

Tootsie at Tootsie Time hosts Fertilizer Friday each week. Visit her to see who else is "flaunting their flowers".

Seems early,...

But I guess it's not. One thing I've loved about starting a blog last year is the way I can keep track of my garden and what's growing when. While I was outside this weekend starting winter sowing I noticed quite a bit of new growth. It seemed early for some things, but as I came in and looked at my pictures and posts from last year it's seems as though most everything is right about on time. Last winter our weather was a lot different, we had a good amount of snow and cold weather. This winter we had icy weather in the beginning of December but other than that it has been fairly mild and very rainy.

More Hellebores (H. orientalis) getting ready to bloom. This one is 'Royal Heritage'. These I know are right on track.

Iris reticulata seemed early, but looking back at my records they are at about the same place they were last winter.

Clematis 'Nelly Moser' as well as pretty much all of the other Clematis in my yard have new growth.

Old fashioned Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) seemed really early to be sprouting, but looking back it's not. All of them are at about the same stage as this one.

Corsican Hellebore has buds that seem to be growing daily, last year they bloomed through the snow. I think they are typically later bloomers than the other Hellebores (H. orientalis), but in my yard they bloom right around the same time.

Variegated Wallflower (Erysimum linifolium) was new last April, but it came in full bloom when I bought it. It has only stopped blooming during the freeze back in December, it's now got quite a few new buds. As I've said before this has been one of my favorite new plants this past year. If you see it and it grows in your zone (USDA 3a - 9b), buy it!

Winter Daphne (daphne odorata) never got a chance to really bloom last year. Hopefully these quickly growing buds will be able to flower before any more freezes.

Winter Hazel (Corylopsis) 'Buttercup' didn't really get a good chance to bloom either last year. It's loaded with yellow and pinkish buds.

This house down the street from me has a tree that has new growth all over it, I can't tell what type of tree it is though and this was the best picture I could get. Any ideas? This house is going to be for sale, anyone want to be my neighbor? :)

Sarcococca is now blooming, but I'm saving those pictures for Bloom Day. They are exactly on time, Grace's are blooming too. The Snowball bush (Viburnum) actually has some leaves beginning to open as well as some of the Hydrangeas. The Hydrangeas worry me though, since one good freeze and I say "goodbye" to all the flowers for summer. Another thing I'm a little concerned about are the pests that seem to be enjoying our mild weather, I've seen both Aphids and Leaf hoppers on my plants. As much as I've loved this mild winter I would really love to get at least one snowfall.