Some color from a sunny day.

I hate wasting sunny days this time of year, but I had a day of mostly errands so I didn't have much time to play in the dirt.  One of my stops was the grocery store, and a few things made their way into the cart.  I think I was giving myself an excuse to get outside when we were finished. 

I thought it would be fun to try onions as well, so I bought a bag of Red Wethersfield onion sets.  My helper and I planted some in our freshly cleaned raised beds.  There are 80 in a bag, so I plan to share a lot of sets we didn't use.

During her nap time I thought I would get the violas planted.  I did some very minor cleanup to the bed that they went in.  They are planted near the Japanese maple by our front door.  This is a beautiful variety, acer palmatum 'Orido Nishiki'.  I tried to get a good picture of the newer branches, it's difficult to see the deep red color.  The leaves will be a variegated cream and green with a hint of pink, very pretty.  

While I was out I saw that the tete-a-tete daffodils and anemone blandas that I found several days ago had finished opening.  They are a bit dirty from the heavy rain we had a couple of days ago.  

The lighting makes the anemone look lighter than it is, it's actually a little darker than this picture shows.

This morning looks wet and rainy with the promise of the temperatures heading back down into the 40's this week.  I guess that means I need to get the house back in order.  It seems to slip away on the days the I spend outside.  I'd rather dig holes and weed than do laundry or cook any day of the week!

My newest pastime.

On days that it ends up being too rainy or cold to do any yard work, I've developed a new pastime:  examining flower buds.  This is when I walk around looking to see how close the buds on various shrubs are to opening.  On plants that aren't as reliable about flowering, I may even go as far as to ever so gently pull the outer leaf back on a bud thats begun to break.  As you many be able to tell, I'm not exactly patient.

I've had this tree peony in this spot for about 3 years.  I had moved it a couple of times before I found a place it had room to grow.  It has taken it's time blooming, although I think that's pretty normal for them, especially after having been moved.  Last year I think I had 3 or 4 huge blooms, so far I can see 2 buds.  There is a lot of new growth on it as well.  The bloom time on tree peonies is usually late spring.

February 19

 March 1

 Another current stop on the examination list is the variegated daphne odora.  It has been taking it's sweet time.  It's been almost 2 months since it's buds started to open.  It's usual bloom time is January to February.  I'm just anxious to smell it's fragrance.

January 12

March 1

This is anther one I've been checking frequently, the pink flowering currant. Its first few years the blooming was sporadic.  A few branches would have flowers and the rest of the shrub would be leaves.  Last year it put on a great show, and I'm hoping it will do so again this year.  According to various sites I found on the internet its bloom time is May through June.  I know mine has always begun to bloom in March.

January 31

March 2

The lilacs will be next.  I have two varieties, syringa vulgaris 'Ludwig Spaeth' and syringa prestoniae 'Miss Canada'.  The second variety blooms around mid June and for a longer period of time after the other lilacs have finished.  They are newer plants in the garden and they really took off growing last year.  Since it takes several years to really get blooming, I think this should be a great year for them.  

Clean up day.

Yesterday ended up being another surprisingly mild day.  I took my two little gardeners out and we did some cleanup.  We cleaned out all of the raised beds, did some minor weeding and my daughter even found some potatoes.  The red potatoes were pretty small, so she cut them up and replanted them in the area that the tomatoes will be in.  On the trellis behind the raised bed is a clematis.  It makes a boring wood fence very colorful in the summer.  I also cleaned around the blueberry bushes.  I'm pretty sure I will have to move a couple out, because they aren't going to have enough room.  

 I think I'll wait until fall since I can see flower buds forming on them already.  

I've been working on enlarging this corner bed.  There had been a compost bin here, so the soil in this area should be really good for planting.  I haven't quite decided what all will go in.  I've put up a trellis for the sweet peas and a variegated hydrangea is already there.  I'm still thinking I may make this a small cutting garden, and possibly have a few herbs at the front.   You can see one of my very professional blue plastic shovels here.

I also spent a lot of time raking out the flower beds along the pathway.  Everything is looking good there as well.  

The winter hazel 'Buttercup' has lots of buds on it as does the camellia japonica 'Marie Bracey'.

I ran out to take these pictures this morning and it had just rained.  I see now that the sun is coming back out and I can hear the chickadees singing.  Hopefully it'll be another good day for some more cleanup in the front yard.