A Gardener in Progress

Mid -March and the signs of spring keep on coming.

2013-03-14T12:26:00.002-07:00

We've enjoyed the few sunny days we've had, as well as the ones that are at least dry enough to go out to the garden and do a few little jobs here and there. Plants seem to be sprouting everywhere. As usual in spring there are some "missing" plants. I'm always disappointed when plants I really like don't return. I'm not sure what I could really blame them not coming back on. It wasn't really that cold, the rain seemed about normal and we only had one day of snow. But the upside is room for new plants!

The little Violas that I planted in fall are all sending up lots of flowers now.

Last weekend we had a couple of nice sunny days and the chickens loved laying out in it.

We put "cages" around the blueberry bushes. For years they weren't noticed by birds, but over the last couple years the Robins have found them as well as our chickens. Further down we planted some raspberries and put some supports in for them.

Marsh Marigold is blooming.

The white Bleeding Heart is always ahead of the pink ones.

Hopefully these girls are finding lots of slugs to eat!

Pink Flowering Currant is so close to blooming! The hummingbirds are crazy for them.

I just found Sugar Snap Peas popping through today. They weren't there yesterday. No sign of the Sweet Peas yet though.

Inside the row cover there is lots and lots of brand new sprouts.

In another month or so the shed garden will be loaded with flowers.

One of the few daffodils to come back. The Tete-a-tetes seem to do the best in my yard.

I've started seeing a pair of Wrens working on a nest in a birdhouse in our backyard, honey bees were out this weekend and the Towhee that is here every spring splashing away daily in the birdbath is back. I've found a few new plants to put in the garden. I love this time of year.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

What ever happened to Blotanical?

2013-03-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

Is anyone in the know about what has happened or is happening at Blotanical? I admit I quit going there as often when the whole way picks were done changed. I personally didn't care for the "rating" of blog posts by the number of picks given. I had always visited Blotanical (which I joined in January of 2009) to find new blogs, which in turn lead me to meeting new friends from all over the world. After awhile I only visited blogs that were either on my blogroll or ones that I came to by "blog hopping". A couple of times this week I thought about Blotanical and thought I would see if I had missed out on any news. I looked through the forums and the newest topic I could find were posts on how to cheat Blotanical to raise your blog in the faves. I know this was written more as a way to out the cheaters, not for that bloggers personal gain (it even says "tongue firmly in cheek" in the title). I remember some similar blog posts about the same thing a year or two ago.
Then I started looking through the blogs I had once faved, back years ago when I was very active and I started to feel kind of sad about the whole thing.
When I started my blog in 2009 Blotanical had such a community feel to it. That feeling seemed to be less and less as the whole picking thing changed - at least in my own personal opinion.
I admit, that life has gotten busier and I have not been as good about blogging or blog visiting, so maybe the Blotanical community still has the same feel it had years ago and I have just gotten so out of the loop that I don't know who anyone active is there anymore.
So, has anyone heard a word about if or when anything is ever going to happen? Or is there another place that you garden bloggers go now to find another great community of garden bloggers?

I felt like I needed to have a garden picture, so here is my pond!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Almost there...

2013-03-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of days the sun has been out and you can just feel spring in the air. I swear you can practically see things growing now. I've been spending what free time I have out enjoying the yard, still getting it cleaned up, moving plants, starting some seeds.

I cleaned up some of the pond and cleaned out the filter a couple of days ago. The fish have been swimming around and the pond plants have new growth.

Now that we are getting close to our first spring without the huge pine tree I'm starting to get an idea of just how sunny it's going to be on the deck. I can finally have a big pot of herbs growing on it, lots of flowers and best of all no sap or pine needles on any of them. I'm pretty sure we'll have to invest in an umbrella too.

You can really see the difference between the sun and shade here, but I know as the sun gets higher during the spring and summer that fence bed will get lots of sun too. I've got chicken wire protecting newly emerging plants from the chickens who have a taste for fresh green leaves.

Lots of bulbs popping up and the Flowering Currants are getting close to blooming. The further away one may not do much this year since I had to move it during the tree removal.

I planted this awesome Hellebore last winter. It's from the Winter Jewels collection 'Cherry Blossom'. It's become my new favorite.

We've almost had our chickens a whole year, but this will be the first spring with them outside. They definitely like to eat plants so I'm going to make sure I'm around to supervise what they are getting into.

Hellebore 'Mardi Gras'

Not the best picture, but I found this cute little rusty metal Nuthatch at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. The show was probably my favorite one yet. I didn't get a lot of pictures this year, but many blogs had great photos from it.

I finally got pvc hoops up on the front raised beds. We got this one planted this weekend and am crossing my fingers this gives us more veggies than we had last year. The plastic will be held down with clips, just waiting for them to get here, for now rocks are doing the trick.

It looks so bare right now, but I've sprinkled lots of seeds around the fence and more will get planted when it warms up more. At the top of the trellis is a little visitor. Can you see her here?

This cute little angel was bought at the garden show too.

I would have to say Hellebores have been one of my best "investments". No, they aren't too cheap, but they really are worth the money. This one has lots of little babies around it that I can dig up and share.

I love this combination in one of my wine barrel planters. The Euphorbia will be blooming before too long.

I'm trying to be patient to start tomatoes and other vegetable and flower seeds this year. I think I've been starting them way too early and then I get impatient having them in the house taking up space, and then plant them outside too early. This year I'm waiting until the beginning of April (if I can hold out that long, it may be the end of March).

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Pretending it's Spring!

2013-02-01T14:19:00.002-08:00

Okay, no excuses about why I haven't blogged in 2 months. ☺
The sun has been peeking out today and it reminded me of what it's like here when it's not pouring rain or foggy for weeks on end. It felt like spring, and it was so nice to soak up a little sun. It's also perfect weather for working in the garden. You know it's been a productive time outside when every single thing you were wearing is covered in mud.
My original plan was to clean up the raised beds in our front yard, that never happened. Instead I moved several shrubs around and have ended up with two that have no homes. Hopefully one of my friends will want them. The spaces where some of the shrubs were are now open for new plants later on. I've decided that this is going to be a year of rearranging the garden. I'm always moving something, but there are years that I don't do quite as much. I have several plants that are just in the wrong spot, either too big, or just don't look right. Can't wait to start digging!
While I was outside I was amazed at how much is already starting to grow. Snowdrops are up and blooming, Hellebores are very close to blooming, lots of tulip and daffodils are starting to break through. Bleeding Hearts have brand new growth showing, leaf buds on Flowering Currants are getting much bigger and best of all the Sarcococcas are blooming and making the yard smell delicious!

A recent visitor to our pond a few days ago. This Great Blue Heron sat in this tree for about 15 minutes before flying off. Luckily he didn't get any fish, but he almost hit our window, his wing actually did but he seemed uninjured.

The little shed garden has lots going on in it. Can you spot Tina Fey looking for bugs? She scratched up the garden nice and pretty!

The shed garden from the other direction.

I'm so proud of myself for starting to plant more around the pond that is evergreen. It actually still looks pretty there.

I can't say just how happy I am that the pine tree is gone. I don't miss it for a second and every time I untangle the remaining pine needles from plants I think about how this is the last time I'll be doing that.

The chickens were stretched out all over the deck soaking in the sun.

More looking for something good to eat.

Speaking of digging things up, I dug out a Camellia that had been where the Pieris is now. It had been there for years, only bloomed on the bottom, was yellow and grew horizontally for some reason. I had the Pieris in a container that it was too big for. I think it will be perfect here.

In the front bed I moved out a rose (into the backyard) and a Deutzia that never did anything. I had a large fuchsia that was too close to the edge of this bed so I moved it to where the others plants had been. Wish the Hydrangeas looked better than they do in the winter.

I moved a Spirea that was much too big for this spot, and moved a Weigela (a small variety that I can't remember the name of) into it's place.

It looks so fresh there now. While I was digging I dug up several cherry tree sprouts that had gotten pretty big.

This area just needed a change. I dug up another Spirea that was just getting too big. There are several plants here that I want to move.

There was a theme to my digging today. They were all shrubs that had gotten too big. I've learned the lesson over the years that those tags on those tiny little plants at the nursery are correct. That one gallon plant will get to be 6 feet high and wide, or whatever it says.

We're supposed to have another nice day tomorrow, and this time I will get those front raised beds cleaned out, hopefully...

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Keeping busy indoors

2012-12-05T10:43:00.002-08:00

Since it's mostly been rainy here, there hasn't been a lot I can do outside. That is aside from continuing to keep refilling the yard waste container every week with the piles of branches and buckets of cut back plants that I have. I think I finally cleared the last bit and the huge pile is gone. That means once Christmas is over I can go back to cleaning up my garden. Most of the "decorative" seed heads and "winter interest" have already lost their appeal thanks to the huge amounts of rain. Now they are mostly just slimy and picked over by the birds.

Winter always feels especially long when it's raining and I'm tired of doing housework and other chores to keep busy. But I had no idea what I could do. I learned how to do all sorts of needle work from my mom when I was younger. In fact when I was around 12 or 13 my mom and her friend started a 4H group, and they taught my sister and me and some of our friends all sorts of different skills that I'm so glad to have learned. We sewed, baked, canned, embroidered and more. We entered or projects in the state fair, and I even baked in front of judges once. Most of the skills I sort of ignored as I grew up. But I'm so glad now that I have at least the basic knowledge to fall back on as an adult. I can still thread a sewing machine and have helped Sweet Pea on some small projects.
Over the years I've been interested in many bloggers other talents and hobbies that keep them busy year round. I've always loved seeing Flower Lady's needle work, and she inspired me to try doing some myself . Last winter I was in a craft store and found myself wandering the embroidery area. I bought a very basic pre printed kit. It was fun to relearn the stitches.

This winter I've started doing a couple more projects.

One is a pillowcase for the Littlest Gardener.

Then some chickens on a flour sack towel. Technically I think the one of the left is a rooster, but I'm calling it a chicken and did colors matching our loudest chicken Tina Fey. I can't wait to work on more. I love these vintage style patterns and have ordered some cute garden ones to try too.

And here's something else keeping me entertained indoors. I have a couple of Amaryllis getting close to blooming!

I wish I would've started doing embroidery again earlier, it's really fun and relaxing. I also need to make sure my daughters learn some of these skills. Sweet Pea learned how to knit from my mom years ago and now wants to try embroidery too.
If any of you have any suggestions or recommendations on good websites or good places to find interesting fabric to work on I would love to hear them!
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

I'm still here...

2012-11-26T14:36:00.002-08:00

Let's see if I still remember how to do this blogging thing. I have thought and thought about trying to get a post done. First it was hard to get in the blogging mood, then life stayed busy (maybe even a little busier than usual). My Dad has been recovering from surgery for cancer, then has been back in the hospital two times since (he's in right now). My youngest sister and her husband had a baby boy. Plus, all the usual things that come up. Then the record setting rains came, then finally today I had both time and some sun!
I found that I had only taken one picture of the garden in October and it was of the pond.
At the beginning of November I started taking some before pictures of part of the backyard where we were finally getting a tree taken down.

You can see how close the tree is to the deck, and our yard is not very deep so it is also very close to our house. We had to pull up all the stepping stones in the area as well as dig up some plants.

The guys who took the tree down couldn't believe such a large tree was planted so closely to our house, but I'm sure years ago when it was planted no one guessed it would get to 90 feet tall and continually drop needles, pine cones and sap all over our roof, gutters and deck. Nothing other than a Currant bush, which was very scraggly, grew under it.

These guys were amazing. They lowered each branch down into exactly where they said they would. Then they cut sections off and dropped them in the same area. I wish I would've taken some pictures of just how big the sections were. Very heavy! We got rid of all of it over the weekend but it wasn't easy. My cousin and her husband came, as well as fellow blogger April. It was fun to meet her in person even if it was over watching our husbands move some heavy log rounds in the rain. She brought me some peppers from her garden too!

For now we are leaving the stump and I actually think I like it. Here you can get an idea of how wide it was. That is a wine barrel plus another planter and still room left.

One big difference is light!! I will be able to grow so much more now in the garden as well as containers on the deck. Our neighbor said she noticed more sun coming into her house too and she was happy for that.

Our little rabbit in his hutch is back in the garden. Next to the stump I planted a Hinoki cypress 'Fernspray Gold'. The parents of the girls on the soccer team I coached gave me a gift card to my favorite nursery, and I used that for the pretty cypress. How nice was that?! It will slowly grow to about 6 feet tall which will be perfect for the area. I moved over a Limelight Hydrangea and planted some bulbs. I'll wait until spring to plant more.

It just feels so much more open and light now. I've still got lots to do to get it back together, but for now it will be fine.

I moved the wine barrel planter that had been under the Japanese Maple which left this nice open area. My girls decided to move all the fairy garden things here.

The pond is very full from all the rain we've had.

Behind the pond it still looks pretty good. I'm glad I started planting things here that would look good into the winter.

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I made a couple of batches of fig jam. It turned out so good! We still have more figs from our tree in the freezer and will hopefully get another batch done before Christmas.

Our chickens are still laying, we've added supplemental lighting which makes a difference. One chicken is STILL not laying, but that's okay. We've been sharing eggs with everyone because we can't use them all. My husband has become an expert quiche baker. It's difficult to tell that the bottom egg is actually light green.

Hope all is well with everyone. I feel so out of the loop in the blogging world.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

And now it's September...

2012-09-13T14:32:00.003-07:00

When I first started blogging I thought I would post everyday, after awhile I realized that was being over ambitious. Then I figured a few times a week would work. Slowly but surely it's gotten longer and longer between posts. Now I've realized it's been around 2 months since I last posted. I was going to try to post sometime in August, but to say August ended up busy is an understatement. Between soccer and art camp, soccer practices starting up, our dog having to get her last 4 teeth pulled, working on a house project, redoing our oldest daughter's bedroom, a ruptured disc in my neck, a visit from my in-laws, getting ready for school and taking soccer coaching clinics it seems that gardening and blogging have been almost non existent.
The Littlest Gardener started kindergarten and turned 6! Sweet Pea is in 9th grade and is taking a very early class (French) up at the high school (9th grade is junior high here). Our day is starting much earlier and ending late by the time sports and homework are done. Looking forward to getting out in the garden more often soon though!
August was very dry and warm, and while I'm not complaining at all, it took a lot of watering to keep the garden going. And as always happens about this time of year I'm tired of dragging the hoses around and have a pretty withered looking yard, especially the back.

Early August

Butterfly garden early August.

Since I've last posted some of our chickens have started laying eggs. It has been so much fun going out and finding the eggs. We've been using them and they sure are better than the store bought kind.

We've had a really good crop of figs and pears this year. Lots of figs are in the freezer waiting until we can make fig jam and can it. There weren't as many blueberries or apples as last year, but enough blueberries at least to have some in the freezer for some fresh muffins or pie over the winter. Sweet Pea and I have been blanching and freezing lots of spinach, and there's lots more growing that we need to pick still. When my in-laws were here my father in law made spanakopita with our spinach. It was even better than it usually is.

This is the front porch that we redid right before I hurt my neck. I'm not blaming it on this job since it was my idea ☺, not to mention that my husband did 99% of the work. The builder of this house, back in the 60's only finished one side of the porch. This side was just pea gravel and was difficult to use. It was always very dusty and impossible to clean. We my husband measured and figured out the pattern of the pavers. I love how it turned out and that we can really use it now.

Now that I'm able to do a little bit more I decided I would redo some pots on our back deck to freshen things up. There's so much I want to do, but it's going to have to wait another month or so. Last thing I want to do is re injure my neck.

I try to let the chickens out everyday, depending on the day they are out from an hour to most of the day. Our dog has been really good with them. The white chicken (in the upper part of the picture) chases poor Gracie around. That chicken is always trying to figure out how to work her way up the pecking order, unfortunately Gracie isn't going to be able to help her with that.

I think there have been more waterlilies blooming than ever this summer. The raccoons were here in late July and really tore it apart. I plants ripped to shreds and dumped all over, although I'd rather they do that than bother the chickens.

The shed garden is doing pretty well still. This part of the yard is very hot and hard to keep watered well.

Plants in this back corner behind the pond have really started to fill in. I was generous with the compost this past spring and it definitely paid off. I'm not sure if you can see how tall the Bugbane has gotten in this picture. It's got to be close to 8 feet tall!! The bees love it.

September has been absolutely gorgeous here. I wish our schools would use July, August and September for summer vacation since those seem to be our nicest months

I hope that now I will be able to start visiting everyone's blogs again. I really miss seeing what is going on in your gardens.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Some of the July garden

2012-07-21T21:13:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe we're already this far into July! It has been a fun and busy summer, seems like there's barely been a day without something going on. The temperatures finally warmed up in July and the watering has begun, nothing like what many of you other gardeners are going through though. We've had quite a bit of thunder and lightening, not very usual for our summers. It's kind of fun listening to the thunder rumbling while the doors are open. It's also finally been warm enough to sit outside in the evenings. Recently we heard an owl up in a tree right by us. I knew there were owls around, but we've never heard one here. We also found a small fire pit for the front yard and had fun roasting marshmallows and making s'mores.

Here are some pictures of what's been happening in our garden:

Asiatic Lilies have already bloomed, at least the ones the squirrels didn't steal the bulbs of. This one was my favorite. Purple Canterbury Bells are blooming behind.

I planted several Astranias last summer, some were on a clearance table for just a couple of dollars. They are the coolest flowers! I found a light pink one this year to add to the garden.

Campanula 'Samantha' is covered in flowers for months.

The path garden is mostly filled with green this time of year, except for the Hydrangea 'Pia' in the container on the deck.

This is the back corner behind the pond. The Clematis 'Ville de Lyon' is finally blooming. To the left of it is a very tall Bugbane (Cimicifulga or Acataea). It's probably close to 8 feet tall, I had no idea it would get that big.

Echinacea 'Sunset' or 'Sundown', I can never keep it straight. It has reseeded and I'm so happy to get more of these flowers!

The front Butterfly garden which is more full of territorial hummingbirds than butterflies right now. They are busy fighting over the tall Monarda 'Jacob Cline'.

Daylily 'Strawberry Candy'

Gernaium 'Rozanne' is now my go to plant for any area that needs space filled in quickly and something that blooms for months. I planted this as a gallon plant about a month or so ago, it's huge now! To me it is worth every penny. I have some climbing up in and around roses and they looks so pretty, especially the lighter pink roses.

So many Sweet Peas!! I planted them months ago and after thinking the first set of seeds rotted, I planted more. I think both sets germinated and it's so pretty and smells delicious!

A new Echinacea 'Hula Dancer', I love the skirt.

Gracie is plotting her next escape here. Originally we had climbing roses in the blue pots on either side of the gate, they hated being there and were moved elsewhere. I now have a Clematis in each and they are doing great. I think they grow a few inches every night.

Gladiolas are starting to bloom. The Clematis texensis on the fence has only been there one year. It has been growing and blooming for months, I love the bell shaped flowers.

The Hydrangea 'Preziosa' that I moved last year when we did our front garden is looking the best it ever has. It's difficult to see the flower color here, it's a light lavender that continues to age to a pinkish color. I think it was in too much sun before and seems to love being under the Dogwood tree.

Daylily in the backyard.

Sweet Pea with Sunny. Sunny is a Brown Leghorn and seems to be the only chicken that doesn't mind being picked up. She is also the one that sneaks into the blueberry bushes every time they are let out. We are hoping we'll seem some eggs in the next couple of weeks. They are almost 18 weeks and that is the early side of when they can start laying eggs. As a new chicken owner I can still say they are so much fun, not much work and really one of the best pets I've ever had, and believe me we've had them all - dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, fish, hermit crabs, hamsters and gerbils.

Hope you are enjoying your summer!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Bursting with Flowers (and Chickens!)

2012-06-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

You know it's been a long time since you last posted when you start getting emails asking if everything is okay. I appreciate those of you that were concerned with my whereabouts, it's nice to know that there are people out there that care! Luckily everything has been fine. Just busy with kids finishing up school, but luckily the summer break has now started and I hope to have time to blog and blog visit!
Our weather has been mostly wet and cool. We have had the odd sunny day here and there, but they seem to be spread pretty far apart. Over the weekend we had what the weather people are calling a "squall, much like you would see on the east coast". It poured and poured and the wind blew and the power went out. Then after a few hours the sun was trying to break through. The day after that big rain storm the sun came out and I thought I would take some pictures. Luckily just a couple of days earlier I had been out staking up many plants. They are so top heavy and the rain keeps flattening them down.
These are just some of the "highlights". Right now roses and Clematises are two of the types of flowers at their peak.

This Lavatera was just planted last summer. This was the only plant request my husband had for the front yard. I think he made a great choice!

The unknown pink rose which I'm pretty sure is 'Heritage'.

'Lady Emma Hamilton'

'Gertrude Jekyll'

'Honey Perfume'

'Kimberlina'

'Julia Child' (with all the rain blackspot has been a problem on some of the roses)

'Harlow Carr'

'Benjamin Britten' (yes the color is that coral, and it smells so good, a new one this year)

Clematis texensis

Geranium 'Patricia'

Geranium 'Johnson's Blue'

Veronica

Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'. I planted these last year and am amazed how huge they got their first year, I can see why everyone raves about this grass.

Today we had some sun and thought it would be a perfect day for the chickens to have some time out of their coop.

Tina Fey and Chirpy enjoying some wheatgrass.

Is it just me, or are chicken butts really cute?

The two younger chickens would not come out of the coop so the rest ventured around without them.

Sweet Pea decided that her rabbit Blackthorn needed a bigger hutch. We put it together and then dug down about 4 or 5 inches and lined it with hardware cloth so he can't dig out. He's been enjoying digging around and having more space. It was so much fun spending time doing this project with her. It was all her idea, including making the little walkway to his hutch.

We are looking forward to spending time outside as much as possible this summer. The girls have many plans for what we should do, so I will try my best to post and to get around and visit your blogs. Hope your summer is going great so far!!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

And now it's June?

2012-06-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

This year seems to be absolutely flying past! It's hard for me to believe it's already June and that summer is just weeks away. I've had a little time here and there to spend in the garden. I'm trying to take advantage of any free time (which is little) and pull weeds that are slowly trying to take over. There seems to be something new blooming everyday, so it's fun finding what the newest flowers are blooming. The weather hasn't been all that great, lots of gray skies and cool for that time of year, although really this is fairly typical for June in the Seattle area.
Here's just some of what's happening in the front yard"

Roses, Peonies, Irises, Alliums and Erysimums in bloom.

Unknown Irises and Peony 'Festiva Maxima'.

Lupine started by Sweet Pea at school last year.

Oriental Poppy 'Princess Victoria Louise'

Rose 'Abraham Darby' has it's first flower. Last year I don't think it got more than one or two flowers. It was damaged during the previous winter and took all year to recover.

Spanish Poppies and Red Valerian with Lamb's Ear.

The Delphinium that came back! Not as tall as I hoped, but it survive the winter and slugs.

'Eden Rose'

Geum 'Double Bloody Mary'. By far the best Geum in my garden. Lots of purple Columbines.

Raised beds are filling in with veggies and herbs.

Fuchsia, Heucheras and more around this sweet angel.

Rose 'Gertrude Jekyll' and Geranium (I think 'Patricia')

The chicken feeder planter that I filled earlier this spring.

A Siberian Iris that I found blooming recently. This is it's first bloom and it was given to me by a fellow blogger, Linda of Gardening by Trial and Error, who passed away around this time last year.

The driveway garden is doing really well. We finally dug up the Magnolia that wasn't doing anything and found it's rootball hadn't grown at all. We have potted it up and are hoping we might be able to "fix" it. It was replaced by a 4-way grafted Apple tree.

School for both of my girls is wrapping up in the next few weeks. I'm always surprised at how quickly the school year goes by. It seems each year is a little busier than the last as they get older and are doing new things. Luckily I can usually find some time every week or so to unwind and relax in the garden!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

I'm still in the garden!

2012-05-15T16:02:00.001-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! It has been so busy around here, I've barely had time to go on the computer let alone take pictures or blog. Our weather has been just gorgeous, very summer like and it's hard not to be outdoors when it's like that. After two awful springs in a row we are all celebrating all this sun and warm weather. The Littlest Gardener has already been out playing in the sprinkler. Last year I think it was July before that happened.
I tried not to go overboard on the pictures, but it was hard not to. There is just so much going on outside!

We've been working on getting more planted around the picket fence out front. I think it's going to look really pretty this year. The Pink Dogwood ended up having a great bloom! It's still covered in flowers.

Deutzia 'Pink Minor' near the front door. I moved it last year and it seems to love it's new spot.

Some containers near the front door.

Clematis 'Asao' is in the wine barrel planter in the previous picture. The flowers are huge!

The two raised beds out front are beginning to look like real veggie gardens! Besides herbs there is spinach, beets, radishes and all kinds of squash plants in this one.

The other bed is full of kale, chard, basil, peppers and hopefully carrots.

The Lilac 'Ludwig Spaeth' is having it's best year ever. The color is so bright and really grabs your attention.

From the other side of the bed you can see how full it's gotten.

The neighbor kitty found a nice shady spot under the pear tree.

Alliums are coming up everywhere!

Spanish poppies have a really pretty scent, bloom like crazy all spring and summer and I love their tissue paper appearance.

Gracie found a warm spot on the gravel to plot her next escape. Here Clematis, rose, Delphiums and phlox are filling in.

A container I put together last year. Lewisia is blooming.

In a shady corner Clematis 'Miss Bateman' is covered in blooms.

The shed garden is just packed with flowers!

One of my favorite Columbines.

The variegated Rhododendron has been here for three years and finally decided to bloom this year.

We've had herons visiting and so the fish have been hiding a lot. There is only one so far that I can't find. After the last time we had heron problems I put an old plastic crate in the pond with plants on it. It's a perfect hiding spot for the fish now, especially since it's covered in algae.

The path garden has also taken off. You can hardly walk down this part everything is so big. I'm still hoping the Clematises will one day cover this arch.

For now there are a few 'Nelly Moser' flowers blooming.

A view of the path from the other direction.

The raised beds on the side yard are full of Blueberry bushes. I hope we get lots of berries this year!

The chicks had their first night outside last night and did great. I had been putting them out during the day and they loved it so much and hated being put back in their brooder.

They are growing so quickly! Now the house is empty of seedlings and chicks and it can get put back together again. We are all enjoying the chicks. They are so relaxing to watch.

Hope you lasted for the whole tour! I realize I forgot to add the driveway garden. I'll do a post on just that garden next time.

How's your spring so far?

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Hillside Farm - an adventure in rust and treasures!

2012-04-29T20:11:00.003-07:00

Often on the weekend my family and I get in the car and set out with no plan in mind. Usually either my husband or I have an idea of an area that we want to see and then we just get in the car and go. It's amazing how many really great places we end up finding that even if we tried to find we wouldn't. Today's adventure started with my husband's craving for Dim Sum. This lead us to try Top Gun in Bellevue. It was a lot of fun and very good. Then he thought heading out east sounded like a good place to drive. We saw lots of pretty areas, and after deciding to take random turns we ended up on Renton Issaquah Road. As we were admiring the scenery and pointing out horses all of a sudden on the left side of the road we all spotted a place that was unlike any I'd ever seen. Even the girls said we had to turn around and see what it was.
We drove up a driveway lined in old windows, shutters, wood cutouts of reindeer and other cool stuff and parked. A really friendly man came right out to greet us and told us to explore. I could have asked him questions all day, but I didn't want to keep him from his other customers. I'll tell you what I learned. His name is John and this was his family's former petting zoo called Hillside Farm. When his kids grew up and moved out he got tired of taking care of all the animals. He retired from his job and opened up this place. He said he goes picking in old barns and that's where he finds all these treasures. He also teaches black smithing (how cool would that be to learn?!), jewel faceting and other art trades. John showed us some of his art that he has displayed around.
I only had my phone camera but I just had to take some pictures to share.

He and some artist friends are planning to install a large whirligig they are making in the next couple of months in the front. He said it will be larger than this windmill.

Everywhere you turned there was more and different things to look at.

Rails and rails of horseshoes. My girl each chose one.

So many great rusty garden tools!!

Where he does his black smithing.

Out on the front porch.

Inside there were so many interesting pictures, books and other things. It was like being in a museum with the huge variety of items in there.

All sorts of marbles.

Primitives

Notice all the hummingbird feeders everywhere. I saw John had his tomato plants outside already, it seems early but they were huge and very healthy.

I searched and searched online for more information on Hillside Farm, but I found nothing at all. I'm so glad I took one of his business cards so that I can share the address of this amazing place.

Hillside Farm - 11309 Renton Issaquah Road SE, Issaquah, Washington. Phone number 425-761-6936.

We left with an old goldpan(lots of goldpanning tools there), some horseshoes and a galvanized washtub. I can't wait to go back and see what we find next time.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Late April flowers.

2012-04-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

We've been pretty lucky as far as the weather goes the last few weeks. Sunny weekends followed by some rain during the week. It looks like this weekend will follow the same pattern. This means that the plants are really taking off growing (as are the weeds). After living in this house exactly 13 years this month I've really started to notice patterns in some of the trees and plants in the garden (although there are few that have been here since we moved in). This seems to be looking like a great year for roses, Clematis, Lilacs and Pear trees so far.

The pear trees are in about their third year here and are absolutely loaded with flowers. Since we've had quite a bit of sun and some warmer weather I have high hopes they were pollinated. Last spring when they bloomed it was cold and the bees weren't out much. We ended up with 2 pears.

Pear flowers that will hopefully be pears come this fall.

A kind of neglected part of the front yard is slowly starting to fill in with plants. Not sure why I ignore this section of the yard, maybe because it's been hard to find plants that like the mostly shade and clay soil here. These plants are all beginning to show some good growth. The large shrub by the fence is a Snowball Bush.

It doesn't seem to be a good year for blooms on the Dogwood tree. It had an amazing show of flowers last year so maybe it's on a break.

I love the bright pink of the Dogwood flowers.

Another shady bed in the front yard is starting to look good after I pretty much removed every plant 2 springs ago to start over. I've never had my Astillbes look this big and healthy before. This soil is also fairly heavy clay with poor drainage, but I've worked on amending it over the years.

The Tiarella also loves the shady bed, I'd had these plants in the backyard path garden for years and they barely ever bloomed, in this spot they have tons of flowers.

This is another area I sort of started over with last fall. This is full hot sun and I've been working on plants that can take the heat and don't really need too much extra watering.

Awhile ago I found this galvanized chicken feeder at an antique mall. I can't believe how much the plants area already growing.

Solomon's Seal in the backyard path garden is having a great year.

I planted this Indian rhubarb (Darmera peltata) in the pond last year. It had already bloomed when I bought it so I didn't realize what pretty flowers it had.

A quick update on the chicks. They are really wanting to try to flap their wings and fly some. I try to take them out of the brooder everyday or so to let them have some room to move and explore. They are all getting along really well after needing to separate the two babies for about a week after we first got them. Two of the older chicks were really chasing them around. I put chicken wire down the middle of the brooder and everyday would let them mingle while I supervised. Now they all sleep together.

I hope everyone has gotten a chance to get out in their gardens some. I read that some people were seeing snowflakes this morning!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

The coop is done!

2012-04-23T19:28:00.001-07:00

Our original plan was to build our own chicken coop from scratch. We had gotten plans and started making lists of supplies, it was adding up to be a lot of time and money. My sister, who also had bought chicks the same day we did, found an ad on Craig's List for coops. After both of us talking to the man that builds them we decided it was worth it to just buy one that he built, and bring it home to put together.
My husband and I rented a truck to drive the hour plus drive down south to the town where we would pick the coops up. The small town of Orting is on a river and pretty rural. If I wasn't so worried about the directions I would've taken pictures. We passed lots of farms and ranches, saw just about every type of farm animal and made it where we needed to go. The man (Donald) that builds them and his brother helped my husband load both our coop and my sister's in sections onto the truck and off we left to go home. Then we got lost, in a rental truck (with the fuel light warning on), with no phone service. It all kind of looked the same and we weren't sure if we had passed a part of the river or piece of land or not until we finally came to a crossroads and realized we had gone the wrong way. Luckily I wasn't fired from my co-piloting job and we eventually made it back home.

A few weeks ago Sweet Pea helped me get this part of the side yard ready for the coop. I was so glad we already had that part done. The coop itself was easy to assemble, it was the leveling of the ground and putting the coop up on the 4x4 frame that was hard.

I was too busy helping to get any pictures during the assembly part. I was up on the roof and assembled almost all of that balancing on top. Here there are smiles because the worst part is done!

My husband making a few adjustments to the door. If you notice the lock on the top is locked, we took turns locking each other in as a "surprise". It also has a lock on the inside which I said may be where I go to hide from everyone and they can't come in to bother me. ☺

I think it looks really pretty unpainted, but we wanted to add some color to make it fun.

We decided on Barn red. We first primed the wood, then it took two coats of paint. Luckily the temperatures were in the 70's all weekend.

Here it is all finished! Our neighbor was happy to hear we were going to have chickens because she said she grew up on a farm. We promised her eggs.

And from the other side.

The Littlest Gardener thought the chickens needed a little decoration above their door.

On the side there is a window that opens for ventilation.

The whole side can come down too for easy cleaning.

The nesting box door. The coop was designed really well and we're really happy with it. If anyone is interested in getting the information for Donald, who built this, just email me. He builds other sizes of coops as well as a really cool rabbit hutch that we eventually plan to get. Once I get the run set up I will put the chicks out there on warm days so they have more space. They are quickly growing!

And since this is a garden blog I thought I would share a couple of new blooms today. First are the apple blossoms. We have a 4 way (used to be 5) grafted apple tree, all but one graft have blooms.

And the first of the columbines!!

And I had to share this beautiful picture that Sweet Pea took while we were up in Skagit Valley for the Tulip festival. If we would've spent the week building the coop we never would've gotten to see the tulips!

There are so many flowers starting to bloom that I promise the next post will be just garden pictures!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Spring flowers.

2012-04-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

We have enjoying some nice mild weather here. The sun has been out and even when the clouds cover it, it still definitely feels like spring is in the air. How nice to have some windows open and feel some fresh air inside! The girls are out on spring break this week and we're off to a nice start to it.

Tulips around the yard are beginning to bloom.

The fish are swimming around quite a bit. I got the pond cleaned out after this picture, it usually requires a few minor cleanings in the spring.

An unusual Frittilaria.

Deutzia 'Chardonnay Pearls'

White Bleeding Hearts

Old-fashioned Bleeding Hearts, I have lots of these, I just love them!

A Frittilaria, the one and only.

And here's an update on the chicks. At the top left is Tina, she's the largest, below the yellow one is Chirpy, the little one on the roost in Blossom (she must be the slowest growing chick ever, but otherwise she's fine), the other brown chick is Sunny. The bigger chicks are getting their feathers, testing out their wings and their personalities are really showing.

If you remember we had originally gotten four. Well, a friend recommended we go check out a feed store that she had gotten her chicks at. She thought I would really like the stuff they sold there. A woman there showed us some chicks and my husband asked my girls and I if we wanted a couple more.

We said yes! This is Elke and Inge - Barnevelders. They are a couple of weeks younger and a couple of the older chicks have been chasing them, so we have divided the brooder with chicken wire so they can eat and rest without being bothered. A couple of times a day I put them all together when I can watch and make sure they are doing okay. Once these two are a bit bigger we'll let them all stay together.

Gracie is totally fascinated with the chicks. She likes to sit on my lap and watch over the side of the brooder while the chicks hop around. Today I took each of the four big chicks out to meet her. Gracie followed Tina all over and neither seemed bothered by the other.

Tina likes to sit on top of the feeders and when the cover is off she pops her head up to check things out.

I've had some time to garden as well as watch the chicks. I was able to get the potatoes planted, fertilize the roses, lots of weeding and planted some things by the picket fence.

Hoping everyone is seeing some sun, or at least an end to the cold weather soon!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Sun, chicks and flowers.

2012-04-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

I love when the forecasters are wrong. Sunday originally was supposed to be rainy, but instead we ended up with sun! I didn't want to waste any of it so I headed outside to start working on the area we are going to put the chicken coop. My husband was only a week post op from his surgery and couldn't help. Sweet Pea had run a 5K the day before and then played a very rough indoor soccer game (a teammate of her's ended up with a broken rib) that morning so she didn't last too long. While she was there we got quite a bit done. Then I was left on my own, but it was worth all the work knowing why I was doing it.

Before there was a plastic playhouse, a raised bed, a wine barrel planter and there was several inches of pea gravel that had to be moved. In a couple of weeks we will hopefully start and finish building the coop during the kids spring break.

The chicks are growing so quickly, just like the garden right now, they seem to change overnight. Everything I've read and everyone I've talked to has told me the importance of handling the chicks and having them get used to us. We all take turns giving them scratch (a "treat" for chickens) from our hands and we can now predict who will be the first one to come over, who will jump up on our arm and who will be the last to timidly squeeze in. The Black Star ,which was named Stamatina by my husband, is now being called Tina Fey. According to my husband her middle name is Stamatina. Tina Fey rolls off the tongue a lot easier! Wonder if she would be proud or insulted to have a chicken named after her?

Sunny is already starting to sprout tail feathers.

Chirpy is quite nosy and wanted to see the camera as closely as possible.

Blossom, on Sweet Pea's lap, with Gracie checking her out.

On Monday we had sun again although I didn't really have time to work out in it, I wanted to take some pictures since so much is starting to bloom now. These were tulips I bought in a box from the grocery store last fall. They are so pretty!

Flowering Currant 'Prince Edward VII' is one I would highly recommend. It has grown quickly, has tons of flowers and has survived under a big Cedar tree. I have another unnamed Pink Flowering Currant that does well under a Pine tree, but this one is my favorite.

Navelwort 'Starry Eyes' is so sweet. It is slowly spreading in the shady path garden.

Grape Hyacinth are starting to bloom.

Old fashioned Bleeding Hearts are days from blooming. I think they are my very favorite spring flower.

Anemone blanda always surprises me each year. They seem to just pop up and bloom overnight.

This Tulipa turkestanica is a little past it's prime but I wanted to show how pretty it looks with the sun shining on it.

We're back to rain again, but it looks like next weekend should be sunny. This time I hope the forecast is right!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Let's talk about chicks!

2012-03-31T11:49:00.001-07:00

Every spring for many years my husband and I have discussed getting chickens. For one reason or another we decided not to, but it's been a "dream" to have them one day. Yesterday while Sweet Pea was at school I told the Littlest Gardener that I'd take her to the feed store to look at chicks, something I've done with my girls since Sweet Pea was little. But, this time I decided I wanted to actually get some rather than only look. So after texting, emailing and calling my husband at work - the poor guy - we decided that this would be the spring to do it. I had been talking to my sister who lives close by and she decided they would get some too. So we packed up our youngest (her 3 year old son and the Littlest Gardener) and off we went. She and I both ended up with four chicks.

Here they are in their new set up. I thought about having them in the family room with us, but quickly realized that our nosy Gracie might tip the whole thing over trying to look in. So I ended up putting the tub in our "office" on a wooden trunk where she can't get to them.

They settled in quickly and were eating and drinking within a few minutes of being let out.

Everyone got to name one so you will probably guess who was named by a 5 year old and who was named by my Greek husband.

This is Blossom, an Ameraucana. They are sometimes called an Easter Egger and lay eggs that are either blue or green.

This is Sunny, a Brown Leghorn. They lay large white eggs.

This is Stamatina a Black Star (Black Sex-link). They are a hybid of a Rhode Island Red Rooster and a Barred Rock Hen. They are supposed to be reliable layers and their eggs are brown.

This is Chirpy a Delaware. They lay large brown eggs. So far she is the most outgoing and friendly and will quickly hop right up into our hands.

When we are holding the chicks Gracie has to stay out, she is so friendly and just wants to sniff them. I'm sure she'll eventually be as gentle and sweet with them as she is with our rabbit and the neighbor cats.

I've been changing their water frequently since they seem to like kicking their shavings in.

It was so fun surprising Sweet Pea when she came home from school, she was so excited. I can tell this is going to be a fun family pet project for us.
Before my husband got home I started researching how I would like our coop to be. I got some really great ideas from Curbstone Valley Blog. This post in particular had some really useful information. I remember reading this post a couple of years ago. A couple of things that stayed with me was using the hardware cloth underneath as well as the sides and top of the run, and making the coop easy to clean with removable parts. My husband and I began drawing up plans for our coop which includes having the door to the nesting boxes easily accessible from the outside and a run that we can stand up in to make it easier to feed and clean. We plan to put the coop in the sideyard where we have raised beds which only have blueberries in them. At least one bed has been unused for years and their is an outgrown playhouse, they will both go to make room for a coop and nice size run for the days when they won't have access to the rest of the yard.
I am very open to any tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc that any experienced chicken owners have.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Early spring in the front yard.

2012-03-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

The sun was out and birds were singing early this morning. I love this time of year when I wake to the birds. There is a pair of ducks that continue to fly across the school yard over the fence every morning, sometimes they have an extra guy with them. He seems like kind of a third wheel because they appear to try and lose him as they swerve around the sky. I've seen pairs of birds near almost every birdhouse in our yard. Plum and cherry trees are blooming and you can really smell them when the breeze is blowing.
It's still a bit cool outside but I wanted to get some pictures of how some of the front garden is looking right now. There are so many different colors of green (and red and orange) on the new leaves. It won't be too long before many of these plants are blooming.

You can see a picture of this garden on the sidebar to see how it will look later in the summer. I'm always amazed at how much it changes over the year.

We put this birdhouse up last summer and angled it so we could see it from inside in hopes that birds would use it. Well there is already a pair of Chickadees making a nest in it. They don't seem to mind the activity of kids and the dog around them.

From the front you can see all the moss that has grown on the edgers this winter.

The flowering cherry tree is blooming and the bumblebees are loving it.

Spirea has already leafed out. There's some empty space to fill in this bed this year, not sure what will go in it yet though, but I do love empty garden space!

The water garden was cleaned out this weekend. I trimmed all the plants, dumped the water and will let the rain fill it back up.

Pink Hyacinths that were planted last fall are blooming. The slugs have been terrible about eating them.

I planted this container last year and am so happy with how it's doing. The Pieris is blooming and the Clematis on the obelisk is quickly climbing up.

The entry bed is full of color, it's difficult to tell in the lighting here though. Hellebores, Crocuses, Tete-a-tete daffodils and Heucheras really brighten it up. The moss has gone crazy here this winter.

It looks and feels like we are returning to the cooler and wetter weather that we had most of the month. I'm hoping that the daytime temperatures will stay above 50, but I see some days of upper 40's predicted. This time of year I guess you just have to enjoy any dry and sunny day that we have because you never know how long it will be until the next one.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

It's only just begun...

2012-03-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Is tomorrow really spring?

2012-03-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so today is supposed to be the last official day of winter. I saw that it was supposed to be sunny, although cold, so I decided I would hit the nursery for some spring inspiration. It definitely did not feel like spring was a day away as I walked around in the 41 degree weather. Lots of cars and trucks had snow on them, they must live a little higher up because today I didn't see snow at our house. After quickly walking around the outside plants I headed inside. No matter how much I wanted to plant shop it was just too cold to think about doing that today.
I just had my phone with me today so the pictures aren't the best, but there was too much to see and not take any pictures.

There was lots and lots of spring container ideas to look at in the greenhouse area.

Molbak's always has amazing containers put together. They usually have all the plants in the containers nearby so that if you want to do it yourself you can, but you can also buy one ready made.

Pansies were everywhere and so bright and cheerful.

Maybe when it warms up a little I'll go back and get some spring color for some of my empty containers. The forecast is for more days in the low 40's and rain and no matter how much I love to garden, I'd rather do it when my hands won't go numb trying to plant everything.

Love how they used the pallets as backdrops to hang wooden crates. There were so many great ideas just on this one display.

Here they had hung terra cotta planters to use as storage.

I love how they used chain to hang the pallet as a table and attach it to other pallets. You can see the hanging terra cotta pots from the previous picture on the other side. This would be a great way to make a little secret seating area in a garden, the other side could be your potting bench.

We saw this huge rooster yesterday and Sweet Pea insisted I take his picture. I love how the picture turned out, very vintage looking. He was hanging out with all of the ducks by the pond, I think the chickens were all hiding from him.

I'm pretending not to be jealous of the warm weather that much of the country is getting, but it is so hard not to be. I did notice the cherry tree beginning to bloom and the pear tree isn't too far off from blooming either. I decided to acclimate the pea (sugar snap and Sweet Pea), spinach and Brussels sprouts seedlings. Normally I start peas outside, but after the last two years of wet springs they didn't do well so I thought I'd give them a head start this year. Hopefully they'll do okay in the upcoming cold days.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

A (very) brief visit from the sun.

2012-03-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Right now while other parts of the country are enjoying temps 30 to 40 degrees above normal, us here in the Pacific Northwest are "enjoying" temperatures about 10 to 15 degrees below normal along with endless rainstorms and wind. It's hard to believe that spring is just a few days away. They are still forecasting snow and rain mixed for next week. I decided that since the sun was out for a few minutes I would see how my soggy garden was doing.

The birds are sporadically working on nests in the birdhouses. I found sticks all over the deck after the last wind. I think it was part of a nest because I also found a dead baby bird under a tree - it almost looked like some type of woodpecker. Made me sad that the poor birds are even struggling with this weather.

Tete-a-tetes splattered in mud.

I'm so glad I built up this bed recently. The dirt next to it is so soggy I'm not sure the plants would survive.

Bleeding Hearts are slowly but surely coming up.

Hellebore 'Cotton Candy' raised it's face to the sun.

One Camellia 'Marie Bracey' is open, the rest of the buds are tightly closed.

Winter Hazel 'Buttercup' survived the move last fall and is starting to bloom.

Grape Hyacinths are coming up everywhere.

Flowering Currants are behind right now. They are usually in full bloom with hummingbirds fighting over them.

The variegated Rhododendron still has flowerbuds, hoping it will finally bloom this year.

A lone daffodil thinking about blooming.

Pieris and Violas blooming despite the weather.

Blackthorn was anxious to get out of his hutch and play for awhile. He loves being pet and flops all around his hutch looking for attention. Poor guy has barely had a chance to get some exercise.

I know I'm not the only one beyond ready for some dry days. The ground is soggy no matter where you walk and constant gray days can really get you down. So, for as short of a while that the sun pops out and no matter how windy it is while it's out, it does feel good to go outside and soak up what there is.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Instagram garden.

2012-03-09T16:10:00.001-08:00

Recently it was time to get new phones. Normally I really don't use much besides the actual phone. The camera on the last one wasn't very good so I got out of the habit of using it. With my new phone I was playing around with the settings and came across an app called Instagram. I'd heard a couple of people mention it, but I had no idea how much fun it could be. I've been trying out different settings and learning a little more about it, but I can tell this is going to help get my creativity going. I thought I'd try doing a post with just pictures taken using Instagram.

A closeup of a crocus in the backyard. I have no idea what filters I've used because I was just having fun trying them out.

The pond.

The Littlest Gardener insisted we needed a bouquet and so she went around picking flowers. I think she did a beautiful job.

Another filter. Wonder if there's a way to find out what I used?

The Littlest Gardener posing with her flowers.

Hellebore 'Mardi Gras Double'. I love the old fashioned look this filter gives.

The Marsh Marigold is blooming!

The moon was so bright last night.

Same picture as above using different filters and settings.

Ducks at Country Village. The were running all over the place.

Has anyone else tried Instagram? Any tricks? I know that people get very into it and have followers and likes, but I'm just trying it out for the fun of it.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

The plants don't mind the snow.

2012-03-06T13:31:00.001-08:00

This has been a rather strange end of winter. It seems to have gotten more and more winter like now that spring is almost here. I think we've had more snow in the last week or so than we've had for the whole winter. But, after many, many days of gloomy rain I really enjoyed seeing the snow. At least it's pretty to look at and it wasn't enough to cause any problems getting around. Today as I walked around the yard I noticed that the snow doesn't seem to be slowing any of the plants down, if anything most have really taken off growing.

Helleobore Winter Jewels 'Cherry Blossom' has settled in really well and has lots of flowers.

The fish were swimming around and enjoying the sun. Hard to believe that a few hours before there was snow on the ground!

Bulbs are popping up everywhere. Tete-a-tetes are beginning to bloom and the squirrels haven't found these Crocuses yet. That ball of roots is a Hosta looking for a new home. It's even started growing!

Spring is prime time in most of the backyard. Things are really waking up.

Ribes sanguineum flowerbuds are so close to opening.

Two falls ago I planted 3 Fritillaria bulbs. I was excited to see how many are coming up this year.

Hellebore 'Mardi Gras Double' surrounded by wood sorrel and a Western Sword Fern.

I found Epimedium 'Elfin Pink' blooming already!

The path garden lit up by the sun.

And a walk out to the front yard reminds you that it did really snow last night. But even out there the plants seem happy and ready for spring.

The weather this winter reminds me of the one we had a few years ago which was followed by a record breaking hot summer. Either way, the plants don't seem bothered by it and really it is so pretty it's hard complain when it's followed by blue skies and sun.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Keeping busy as a bee.

2012-03-04T17:34:00.000-08:00

Like most other gardeners I'm so anxiously awaiting spring. I do the daily walk through of the yard seeing what changes are happening. I keep trying to find things to do outside, but there's only so much that I can do yet. Too early to put my seedlings out or to plant many seeds. I've had a small pile of things accumulating that I have been "saving" as something to do on a day that I have time to garden. Today I was able to do a few things.

Awhile ago Sweet Pea and I got the idea to hang a terra cotta planter on the side of the shed when we were at Molbaks. They had a vertical row of them filled with Spanish Moss. That gave me the idea to try putting one up high as a nesting place, who knows maybe a bird will think the same way I do? Then I found these letters at Hobby Lobby and thought the word GROW would be a fun one, although I wasn't sure where I would hang them. I think they look great on the back of the shed. It needed some character back there.

The other project is based on our Pear trees. We had lots of blooms on them last year, the only problem was that last spring it was too cold for any honey bees to pollinate them and we ended up with about 4 pears. As you can see it won't be long til these bloom, and the temperatures aren't looking too promising for warming up anytime soon.

Both of the pear trees are being used as scratching posts by our neighbor cats, any suggestions for protecting the trees?

Gracie's projects involve trying to find new places to escape from the front yard.

The need for our pear trees to be get pollinated resulted in me getting to have fun with one of my favorite things... Spray paint! These are the pieces for our new Mason Bee house. We found this kit at the nursery made by Crown Bees, which is a local company. They have a great website with lots of information. You can order houses and bees from them. You can sign up for Bee-Mail and they send emails to let you know when it's time to do things for the bees. We have our bees hibernating in the garage fridge right now.

Here's how the house looks all put back together. Now to find the spot to hang it! This is nothing as cool and exciting as Clare's or Randy's honeybees, but it's as close to beekeeping as we will get. I hope the early spring Mason bees will help get our pear trees pollinated this year. I will be sure to post and let you all know how it goes.

On the Seattle Tilth Facebook page I found a really interesting link to an article on keeping Mason Bees. It's suggested that the bee house is hung at head height to be able to watch their activity which makes this a fun thing to do if you have kids.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Photographic evidence.

2012-03-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

A new sign was meant to welcome guests to our home.

I've been looking for just the right welcome sign for the front gate.

I love the old fashioned look of this one. But, apparently the squirrels think it's a welcome to them to destroy the Crocuses in the garden. I don't ever remember seeing them so torn to shreds as they have been this year. I found a big pile of torn up flowers by the driveway. I thought (hoped) it was a one time event. But, I'm seeing that they seem to have developed a taste for them. They completely shred the flowers and bulbs. So I thought I would take some pictures of the ones that they haven't gotten to yet as proof that I did have some and they did look quite pretty.

Not sure of the name of this one, but it seems to be the favorite of the squirrels. I had such nice big clumps of them this year.

I think this one is 'Pickwick'.

These ones are teeny tiny. My girls found them at Flower World to plant near their fairy gardens, they had no tag other than "mixed" on them.

The last big group of purple ones.

You can see the ripped up roots and flower stems in this one. I don't remember planting the orange ones, and truthfully I don't care for them that much. If the squirrels could limit themselves to the oranges I wouldn't be as mad at them.

I've never had them digging up the bulbs while in flower, it's usually before they start to grow that they are dug up. I'm hoping the squirrels will soon find something better to eat that is not growing in my yard. Oh well, at least I have the pictures to look at.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.