Yay! The Seeds Are Out! There Is Light!

I have to wait until after the groundhog tells me when spring will be here! Even then, I'm not sure I always believe him because I still don't get around to doing much until May 15. I'd hate to spend a fortune on flowers and have one late frost wipe them all out so I'll wait for the groundhog next week and take it from there.

I'm sorry to tell you be I am the Queen of the gardeners. Been a master gardener since 1988. Have a plant sale every year. I specialize in selling hostas but sell lots of other stuff too. Big vegetable garden (1/4 acre) fruit trees, asparagus. I actually do landscape design as a side job and make garden art stuff. Teach classes on gardening. Subscribe to 8 garden magazine-belong to lots of gardening organizations-I love BBC gardeners world-have been a member of Royal Horticulture Society for 5 yrs ( I love England) This I hope to expand after my job ends in September. Of course we don't have the climate like you do. So we must compare notes-as you can see I can talk about gardening FOREVER!!!!!!!!! (them and cats!!)

There are a few eager ornamental fruit trees putting on the beginnings of a display. There are a few not far from my office, that I was going to try to get pictures of today, but it got foggy, so I stayed in and played on TCS instead.

Our quince threw a couple of blossoms just before the cold snap, but the buds are starting again. BIG news: the rhubarb is poking out of the ground!

We don't do a lot on our rental property, but there are also forsythia, lilac, Japanese anemones, hydrangea, a few daffodils, a few crocuses, rose campion, a peony. We've added a rose, some hostas, some ferns, some other ground cover whose name escapes me at the moment*, and we always plant scarlet runner beans and cherry tomatoes, and do hanging baskets and assorted pots of nasturtiums and herbs.

Rob's the one with the green thumb. I'm good for deadheading, the occasional watering and, of course, picking the produce and flowers for our enjoyment.

The days are getting longer, though. It's nice to be leaving the office before it's completely dark, and it's getting better every day. Sring is on its way.

Edited to add *I remembered! -- vinca!

Originally Posted by GailC

I'm sorry to tell you be I am the Queen of the gardeners. Been a master gardener since 1988. Have a plant sale every year. I specialize in selling hostas but sell lots of other stuff too. Big vegetable garden (1/4 acre) fruit trees, asparagus. I actually do landscape design as a side job and make garden art stuff. Teach classes on gardening. Subscribe to 8 garden magazine-belong to lots of gardening organizations-I love BBC gardeners world-have been a member of Royal Horticulture Society for 5 yrs ( I love England) This I hope to expand after my job ends in September. Of course we don't have the climate like you do. So we must compare notes-as you can see I can talk about gardening FOREVER!!!!!!!!! (them and cats!!)

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all hail the queen! Which reminds me, you're probably the person I should ask, when trying to grow tulips, what will cause the bulbs to "disappear" between the time you plant them and the time whey should come up? Every last tulip bulb I plant at my home goes away, never to be seen again! I'd think moles, but I've planted them in the midst of other bulbs and the others come up, just not the tulips!

Tulips are much favored by squirrels, ground squirrels /gophers and similar animals. There are plastic baskets one can plant bulbs in so they don't disappear. I would think the baskets you buy strawberries in would be ok. I think chicken wire would be more non destructive. Lucky for me I don't have this problem. If you like I can get a better answer for you-just pm me!!

Originally Posted by CoolCat

I love the Sunflowers!!!!!

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ok Rigel, este para ti. Espero que te gustan!
This is for you. I hope that you like them!

Here are sunflowers down the road from us last summer. Sorry, I was walking very fast.

Originally Posted by sashacat421

I know this might not mean a gosh darn tootin' thing to anyone, BUT when I was at the pharmacy last night all the seed racks were out on the front walk. It's about time!

This long, dark winter....it's a sure sign that Spring is just around the corner, as they always set them out a month beforehand. You gotta know that so far north the sun starts to set at 3:30 up here. YAY! It was so nice!

I saw daisies and violets, baby's breath, pansies, lobelia, phlox, morning glory, and corn, peas, watermelon, beans, carrots, chives, tomatoes, peppers, and SUNFLOWERS!

Do you all think I am nuts or what. I want to plant them all right now!
What do you grow in your gardens??

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Oh hey, just a bit south of you, I have one yellow crocus in full bloom, others getting ready, my tete a tete's are coming up, and my silly primroses are blooming!

I have spearmint, oregano and lavender in one bed, hollyhocks and roses in another, a long driveway long bed of roses in various colors with a row of grape hyacinths, another front of the house bed with a butterfly bush, a hydrangea, multiple primroses, crocus and tete-a-tetes, a triangular bed with a whiskey barrel dead center - around the barrel we have heather bushes (now also in bloom), in the barrel we have a Peony Tree and some pansies that circle the tree, and we have a huge front bed along the street that needs a LOT of work - it has coreopsis, yarrow, a twisted hazelnut tree, toadflax, iceplants, squaw grass, a couple of astors, and a few primroses...all of which still leaves this bed looking pretty empty.

Can you guess that I have a hard time keeping up with weeding? Oh yes, and along the kidney shaped bed that our 5 front Fir trees are in, we have heather, vinca, carnations,2 rhododendrons, a bed of lithidora, plus a growing little colony of some kind of hens and chickens type plant, and there is another bed we are redoing - yanked all the irises that refused to bloom, and around the 3 rhodoendrons in this bed we are going to begin planting - we did put in two snowball bushes last year...in the corner of this bed are our lilacs, violets and crocus.

Ooh...and then there is the veggie garden we'll be putting in again (fewer tomato plants this year and a bit less miracle grow! , and my languishing old fashioned garden in the back that needs a total rehaul - it has non-blooming peony's, spiderwort (from back east, a cutting from my great-grandmother's plant from my gram's farm) and that's it since I killed our Bleeding Heart cutting from back East.

Now aren't you sorry you asked?

I'm a gardener (flowers only) Who wants to help me plan landscaping for my side yard? Momofmany sent me her thoughts already! Just don't suggest Weigelias because that's what we dug out of the space !

Originally Posted by captiva

I'm a gardener (flowers only) Who wants to help me plan landscaping for my side yard? Momofmany sent me her thoughts already! Just don't suggest Weigelias because that's what we dug out of the space !

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Chris, what the heck are Weigelias????

Pat! "just south of me and my crocus are up". Phooey on you! But we're at 900 ft. elevation....slow pokes by your standards down there!

Originally Posted by sashacat421

Chris, what the heck are Weigelias????

Pat! "just south of me and my crocus are up". Phooey on you!

But we're at 900 ft. elevation....slow pokes by your standards down there!

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Ah...you are maybe 300 ft higher...dh loves weather, maps etc. and looked up our house/area...we are up over 500 feet.

Want to hear a funny? The house across the street but two houses down from us has full blooming daffodils way before us..our house seems to have it's own little zone on this block, and many of our plants bloom later than the rest of the block (except the primroses and our roses which bloomed through December this year!)

Well you go ask them if they vent their dryer to that part of their yard. Works like a charm!

I love sunflowers, especially the gorgeous orange ones...

If we want to grow anything, it has to be in the front yard. Our dogs make short work of anything we try to plant in the back. They think that digging up & carrying around anything we try to grow is so much more fun than playing with their toys. My crazy girl dog is just amazing...leave her out in the yard for 5 minutes & she'll create a network of holes & tunnels that would make a prairie dog jealous.

Originally Posted by sashacat421

ok Rigel, este para ti. Espero que te gustan!
This is for you. I hope that you like them!

Here are sunflowers down the road from us last summer. Sorry, I was walking very fast.

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Thank you soo much Elizabeth, really I like to much the Sunflowers!!!!!

Do you like the music from Tear for Fears?, Have you ever wacht the video "Sowing seeds of love"? I love that video ´cause is soooo cool, to many sunflowers there are!
Thank you again Elizabeth!!!! I dream with sunflowers today!!!

Now one day i want my own house and be a green thumb!!!!!!!!
We dont ave our own garden, the lady downstairs owns the whole appartment block and the garden, she has a lovely pond with a dog house... its massive and a nice garden!
infact i tried to take a pic but all you can see is white from the snow

Well, I didn't spell it right.... but here....www.pottedliners.com/article_4.htm

THAT is a perfectly splendid tag line!!!

Originally Posted by sashacat421

Emma's Friend I love your wildflowers! That is a gorgeous, natural garden. How lovely. Here is our front door area, although I have no idea how the blue bachelor's buttons came up last summer - they just appeared from noplace.

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Thank-you! I have a very relaxed view towards gardening. If it looks interesting I'll let it grow. You'd be amazed sometimes how pretty the "weeds" look when in bloom.

I grew weeds and mums that never flowered. I do love gardening, though, and just didn't know what to do. A friend of mine who is a professional musician is studying for her Master Gardener certificate, and I had her do a garden design for me. It is coming along very nicely. And in shopping for the plants she put in the design, I learned a lot about others.

My favourite so far are Whirling Butterflies, New England Asters, and Anemones. (I have mostly perennials). I also have some very nice flowering shrubs. We also planted a bunch of different kinds of daisies and coneflowers last year, and I hope they do well.

Nothing is growing here, we are in full winter / snow blizzard season. Although, I think I can see the tips of the Christmas Rose showing through the snow.

I tried planting a bunch of different types of bulbs, and the squirrels have left alone (so far) the snowdrops, and the mini tulips. They left me about half of the crocuses.

I have some blackberry lily seeds if anyone wants to try some - Need full sun.