Those are neat pots Chelle, and such pretty blooms.

I have had many bears come through my yard over the years and believe it or not they did no damage to my shrubs or flowers, it was like they tiptoed through them. The only damage they did do was trying to get the crabapples off the tree and have broken branches.

Wow, that's surprising. Especially when you compare paw size to that of my nemesis; the ground squirrel. Big difference there!

When we had the dog he was the one that did the damage chasing them.

I love those "tipped" planters, Chelle ! I also love seeing things blooming, going to be waiting a while here yet, I'm afraid... We got another 3 inches of snow this past week while we were out of town, but came home to find that -- and a good bit of the older snow that was still on the ground when we left -- gone. A few things are poking up here and there, rhubarb, Allium giganteum, Dicentra, chives, garlic, daffodils; in the hoop house the corn salad (aka mache) and spinach are continuing to grow where they left off, and some of the lettuce is coming back up. Even out in the open garden a Chinese cabbage plant survived and is beginning to grow again...

and our sandhill cranes are back, as well !

There is lots of life in my cold frame! Kale and spinach over wintered and are doing great. Mesculen mix is doing well. Lettuce just germinated that was planted a week ago.

Reid, only us northerners can truly appreciate seeing the first signs of life in the spring!

Amen to that Sandy. It was doing quite well yesterday. +80 in the hoop houses (raised beds with covers). Then last night a frost hit and it is 27F this morning. Crapdoodle. I read about you guys growing cold weather plants like cabbage, broc's in your cold frames and hoop houses and wonder that I couldn't put my broc's, bok choy out in the houses but I can't see they would survive at night. Course, the ground in the beds is frozen about 1" down yet. I opened one end of one bed to get sun on the garlic which I fear has frozen and left it open all night. I think being in a raised bed, snow never make it to the top of the beds (last year there was at least a foot of snow on top of the beds) and only a light mulch on top of the toes was too much for them. Oh well, I will know better next year. Plant deeper, more mulch. They had begun to grow last fall I surmise as many that jacked from the ground had short roots on them. I thought they were growing this year but don't think so now.

Mary, I wouldn't give up on your garlic too quickly -- mine is only a few inches tall, and some of it hasn't come up at all yet; we're still getting freezing temps as well. And yes, the garlic should start making some roots after you plant it in the fall, but not tops.

I planted a little bit of garlic (16 cloves, half Creole and half softneck) inside my unheated hoop house last fall, and that is really coming up nicely; depending on how it does as far as making bulbs, I may plant most or even all of my garlic in there this coming fall. (I did have it covered with some Reemay, but otherwise no mulch on top, and, obviously, no snow cover in there. In addition to the slightly warmer climate in there, I think the ability to control the water that the garlic receives could be a big advantage, too -- Ken/DrDawg commented recently that "heavy spring rains seem to reduce the size of the bulbs," and we almost always have a lot of rain in the spring.)

We got about 3 inches of snow last night, once the sun came out it started melting quickly. Supposed to start getting warmer tomorrow, I sure hope so, I have to edge my beds and dig up some daylilies that I am giving away or moving to a different location.

Oh, ick! enough with the snow... I hope you didn't send that my way, Margaret!!

oh, but then again... you were having warmer temps than we were during the "real" winter, as I recall !

I was kind of suprised to find out last night that both the city and our township water still have "let runs" going on (to prevent freezing of water pipes) -- here I was, thinking the frost was pretty well out of the ground now... apparently living in my own little fantasy land. Maybe that explains why the asparagus isn't starting to sprout yet (not that it normally does this early, anyway)

Thanks Sandy. I will keep on hoping for the garlic until I have to dig up that part of the raised bed for something else. Not likely too soon as it is also frozen down just a few inches. I believe that having little snow and its early disappearance is contributing to my feelings of frustration. I looked at my records and they don't show things sprouting any earlier than they are now in prior years. I am all but hopping up and down and yelling at the ground to 'go forth and multiply'. Perhaps it is best I don't or the neighbors would be confirmed in their suspicion that they have a crazy gardener on their hands. No one gardens in my neighborhood, difficult as that is to believe.

It rained last night and everything looks so clean --- and DEAD! Sorry.

On a higher note my Aruncus is growing. I was looking through a report on when things started growth last year and noted this one was growing by now, so magnifying glass in hand I went to look and indeed it is sending up sprouts. It is so difficult to see small growth when you wear bifocals. It is certainly too wet to crawl through the garden with a jeweler's loup to identify growth. Hmmmm. Rubber knee pads perhaps.

Oberon46 said:Thanks Sandy. I will keep on hoping for the garlic until I have to dig up that part of the raised bed for something else. Not likely too soon as it is also frozen down just a few inches. I believe that having little snow and its early disappearance is contributing to my feelings of frustration. I looked at my records and they don't show things sprouting any earlier than they are now in prior years. I am all but hopping up and down and yelling at the ground to 'go forth and multiply'. Perhaps it is best I don't or the neighbors would be confirmed in their suspicion that they have a crazy gardener on their hands. No one gardens in my neighborhood, difficult as that is to believe.

I know just what you mean!! It seems like the snow has been gone a long time (in my garden, anyway; there's still some out in the woods, quite a bit actually) so I keep thinking stuff should be happening faster than it is. Not really many years that I've been able to get out into the garden to even think about planting by mid April, though, so I think we're actually a little ahead of schedule... and if the ground is still partly frozen where your garlic is, I definitely would give it more time! Trust Mother Nature, She (usually) knows what she's doing

Good thing that, "Mother nature knowing what she is doing." Heaven know that I make enough blunders, usually out of impatience if not out and out ignorance. I may not live long enough to be considered a really good gardener. I just grow flowers. At least my husband is impressed with my garden. So much so that as we look for acreage out in the valley he always looks from the perspective of drainage and sunshine potential right before depth of a well from well drilling logs, wetland proximity, topography showing that the lovely picture taken in summer is really in a deep swale. That heavens for having an engineer for a husband. Well most of the time.

Beautiful sunshiny day, 50f degrees, and thankfully no wind for a change. I had to water the gardens this morning everything is really dry, we haven't had any rain and the last snow was just a couple of inches. Looks like most of my perennials are up and looking good. Yesterday I pulled some weeds and cut edged the border on a shrub bed, I usually do that twice a year, only 6 more to do. I have to start out slowly with the gardening, my knees are not very cooperative any more, they really complain a lot.

Beautiful here today as well, nearly 60F ! The ruffed grouse were "drumming" out in the woods while I was doing a little cleanup in the garden, and the cormorants must be back because I heard some shooting in the direction of the river. I'm not crazy about the fact that the DNR supports shooting them, but the Lake Michigan fishery is a huge industry and the cormorants have really decimated a lot of the native species, so I see the point of it. Plus, up until the last 10 years or so, we never had cormorants in this area at all...

Beautiful here today too, almost 70. Today my DH cut a hole in the back of my birdhouse and made a cover for the hole. When I made it I thought it was going to be only ornamental. A bird thought differently last summer and nested in it and I didn't have a way to clean it out 'cuz I hadn't made a cleanout. I wanted it to get done right away as the birds are looking for houses and I hope one will nest there. The Tree Swallows are back and they are chasing off any other birds checking out the birdhouse they used last year. They are my favorite. Some bluebirds were checking the house out and though I love bluebirds I was glad when the Tree Swallows won the day.

This is the little wren coming out of the birdhouse last summer.


I got that cleaned out and started cleaning on flower beds that I didn't get done last fall. It's pretty slow going as I'm still pretty gimpy and have to work mostly sitting done, my foot still swells pretty bad if I'm on it long.

Susie, what a great photo! that wren has very good taste in housing

Sandy, I have thought it so amusing that they have chosen only the prettiest of the bird houses to nest in. These are from last year.








I took down the one the Bluebird used and won't put it up until it looks like the nesting is done. I've had it in the garden in the front of my house and last year was the second year the Bluebirds nested there . Since it was right in front of the house the cat started hanging out in front of the birdhouse and even though I put things in front of it so I thought he wouldn't be able to get them, I came home one day and he had gotten the female. The eggs were already laid and the male sat out there and cried for 3 days. It was heartbreaking. Finally he came back one day with another female and they started building a nest on top of the old one. Then one day all the activity stopped. After a couple weeks, when I was sure they weren't coming back, I looked in the birdhouse and the male was laying inside dead. I don't know what happened, but I don't want another pair of birds nesting there. It is too big of temptation for my cat.

Susie, the birdhouses are so beautiful... and I'm right there with you as far as the cats, I have 2 and love them immensely, but also love the birds, and sometimes that gets to be a bit of a conflict. Every day I tell them I'd better not be finding any red feathers (from the cardinals) lying around the yard

On the other hand, a couple of years ago my older cat, Kinja, got pretty badly beaten up by a bluejay... took her quite a while before she would even go outside again.

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug...

Thanks Sandy, my DH made the big white one for me for Christmas. I painted it and the Church one he made for my birthday, and I made the one with the wren.

So sorry about your cat, I agree it is a conflict between wanting the cat and feeling sad when they kill the birds you've watched for a couple of years.