I always enjoy the waking up time of year. I took a walk about the other day and found tiny little buds on many of my shrubs and trees. The alder in particular are pretty - we have a lot of these in our back woods and the buds and/or catkins form a soft pink haze. Daylilies are popping out their heads, along with the early bulbs. Unfortunately the creeping buttercups are also waking up and putting out new leaves (the bane of my gardens). I'm seeing robins now and again, and yesterday a cottonwood was absolutely filled with singing blackbirds. No frogs yet. The sun is starting its slow creep north and giving me beautiful sunrises. Time to break out the pruning shears!

Sign of Spring: I just heard a chorus of Spring Peepers!!!

Ah, you're probably a week or so ahead of me. I haven't heard so much as one frog yet. Usually I get a couple stray but brave croaks, followed shortly after with the whole chorus. Love love that sound.

The freezing weather has finally stopped. It may be rainy now, but between rains I had a chance to see what survived the winter.

My brother in law on Camano Island just texted me, he was hearing Spring Peepers, so I opened the window-I hear them too!!!!
I will sleep with the window open tonight.

This was a rather cold winter for this region, but the treat was a white Christmas. Just now got out this morning (and it's still rather chilly) and looked around. I found a few surprises.

I planted crocus in the barrel planter last year and the squirrels promptly ate many of them, so I dug up what was left of the bulbs (I only found a few). To my surprise, we have a barrel full of crocuses! You can see from the pic that the squirrels are still digging in it, but then I see their little digs everywhere.

Here's the kick, the squirrels actually replanted a few! I found them growing on the shady side, and in probably the most shaded part of the shady side.

Also, one of the first of my "plunkers" from 2 or 3 years ago, a herb bush who's name I can't remember (I hate senior moments) is still here, doing well among the weeds that make up the "lawn". We've harvested from it a few times. Also some little blue flowers that used to be ground cover around a tree that was removed 3 years ago is still pushing its way up in the parking area. I want to reward it by moving it somewhere were it will thrive, but not sure how to do that.


White Christmas.


Crocus survival and squirrel-planted area.


Ground cover and herb bush.

Brinybay said:

Also, one of the first of my "plunkers" from 2 or 3 years ago, a herb bush who's name I can't remember (I hate senior moments) is still here,

Rosemary, I asked my wife.

I love how crocus sort of go places, I can tell you in a few years each of those crocus is going to be a clump!
I have a rosemary shrub I "plunked" in maybe 10 years ago, it is now huge and overgrown, I just used some of it in my dinner.

Pistil said:I love how crocus sort of go places, I can tell you in a few years each of those crocus is going to be a clump!
I have a rosemary shrub I "plunked" in maybe 10 years ago, it is now huge and overgrown, I just used some of it in my dinner.

If they can take root in that shady side, my wife and I are picturing a sea of purple, her favorite color. So do crocuses multiply on their own?

yes, the bulb will make new bulbs, so you have a clump, and also they will make seeds that sprout. The baby crocuses look like grass, so if you are too careful you might weed them out.
Here are some clumps of mine from single bulbs I planted some years ago-I plan to dig some up and bring them to the swap (note the labels so I will remember which are which). Each started from a single bulb. I am not sure how the white one got there, maybe squirrels, maybe it is a seedling. I have found some crocus do better here than others, these are the survivors.

Pistil said:yes, the bulb will make new bulbs, so you have a clump, and also they will make seeds that sprout. The baby crocuses look like grass, so if you are too careful you might weed them out.

Ha! No worry there, weeding isn't my strong point unless it's something obvious and/or I'm having fun doing it, like when I got rid of the knotweed patch.

Before and after:

I wish I found it fun to work on my blackberry patch...

Pistil said:I wish I found it fun to work on my blackberry patch...

You don't harvest the berries?

Pistol, I rather like getting after the blackberries. For as daunting as they first appear, once you get in the midst and just snip the main canes back to the ground, it's not a difficult job. Course I can just leave them lie, all of mine are in my outlying areas. Picking them up to dispose of would be a whole 'nother thing - they poke through all my gloves and give me the shivers! Briny, I harvest the berries (love the jam), but there are so so many of them in our area, and they really are a rather nasty invasive. I'm always rather amazed to find cultivated blackberries at PNW nurseries, although I 'suppose' a thornless cultivar may have some merit. Just seems redundant to me - they are virtually EVERYWHERE (and delicious). Obviously, I'm torn.

I moved this post to here:

The thread "Spring progress and photos" in Pacific Northwest Gardening forum

Yah I just have a suburban lot so I do have to get rid of them, and there are plenty wild ones near here along the power lines. Yes, just cutting them down is not bad, it's the disposal, getting them into the yard waste disposal bin. I wear "Rose Gloves".

Just opened the door to let the cat out- Spring Peepers are singing!

Yep, mine came out in the last few days as well. Love them!

The robins are here, the swallows are back, and we had a group of grosbeak come through yesterday. They didn't stay around after the Merlin falcon showed up to terrorize the bird feeders. I'm hoping the 6 pack of white tail that have been hanging out in the yard all winter will move along when the snow is gone. They can be awfully hard on garden plants.

The snow is getting mushy finally, but the ground is still too frozen to accept the melt, so we aren't quite to mud season yet - still in giant puddle days that can be skating rinks in the morning, depending on the overnight lows. Our garage is flooding slightly due to the melting of the roof-slide snow and the ground being frozen.

It's in the 80 - 90's in my greenhouse when the afternoon sun is shining unless I open the door.