Winter lasted 3 months.

Our first heavy frost of the winter was December 5, 2009. It was late in coming. We had a light frost in October, but nothing took much notice. If the forecast holds, our last frost of this year will be March 9, 2010. That's just over 3 months of winter. I'm not holding my breath just yet. I've seen snow in April. Our average last frost date is April 15.



Today, I'm going to piddle about the yard a bit. I might cut the grass again and do some more weeding and edging. My real plans focus on the gully and seed scattering. Farmers Almanac proclaims today and tomorrow as the best days to start seed and flowerbeds. I'll be doing just that in the gully.

Last summer, I collected cosmos seeds from all my orange and sometimes yellow blooming plants. I'll be scattering these seeds in the area where the ivy and periwinkle have been trampled hauling firewood all winter. I have no doubt some of them will be taken by the birds. Others will fail to sprout for whatever reason. But some should take hold and germinate before the ivy recovers the area. I've also got Forget Me Not seeds for the back side of the perennial bed. I used the weed eater last week to remove many of the winter weeds and give me a little access to the soil there. They'll enjoy the shady nature of that space and should bloom until the heat of summer takes them out. They reseed readily once established. Cosmos do too.

Other plans include moving the tiny maples I marked with pink tape last fall. I chose saplings with brilliant orange or yellow foliage. They're just beginning to bud right now, so moving them shouldn't cause too much stress. It's still wet back there, but the red maples can handle a bit of water.

Finally, I'm going to do what I've been wanting done for several years. In the Wild, the area between my yard and the neighbor's plot, I've got large clumps of daffodils that never bloom. I intend to dig these out today, scattering bulbs in the perennial bed, the shrub border, and along the back of the house where I've neglected planting anything for spring color. It's probably not the best time to move daffodils, but I've got nothing to lose. These clumps need the attention.











I figure I'll get at least another 100 bulbs from these, maybe more. If time allows, I might possibly consider maybe scraping some paint from the trim on the north side of the house, preparing it for the paint I need to apply soon. I'm still unsure about how to handle painting the South side, where the ridgeline is 3 stories off the ground.

It's 39 degrees this morning. The high today should be in the mid 70s. There is also laundry to do.

Weeding and such as...

It rained yesterday. My rain gauge cracked and split at some point over the last week, so I can't tell you how much we got. There's no water in the basement, so I'm assuming less than 1 inch. The ground in soggy wet this morning, so I've decided to spend some time weeding in the back meadow, trying to remove as much periwinkle as I can before the Robins force me to move elsewhere. I worked on a small portion while my second cup of coffee turned cold on the bumper of my truck. I'll get to the rest of it in good time. I've got lots of plans for the day.

I was up early, having gone to bed about 9pm. The trip and training session to Winston-Salem had worn me out. Lots of new ideas for the coming year in the Garden Center are still swarming through my head. I'll need to put them down on paper as soon as I'm back to work on Thursday. Yes, my vacation starts tomorrow, but with two large shrub orders scheduled to arrive the day after tomorrow, my own schedule was switched to facilitate putting the plants where they belong. At least the store will be ready for the weekend. I hope they have nice weather. I won't be here. More on that later.

Before heading outside this morning, I checked the 4 Marseilles fig cuttings in the cloner. I moved them all here rather than trying to root them in the orchid mix. I'm determined to have this fig in my yard by summer's end.



The Black Mission fig I showed yesterday, which may or may not be properly labeled, has grown even more roots in the last 24 hours.



Heading outside, the little bluestem grasses I transplanted into the meadow garden has new green growth.



So does the spirea in the shrub island. This one was transplanted last summer right after I built the bed. It needed more sunlight than it was getting in its other location. I hope it's covered with blooms this spring. I'd like to root more of these.



Ditch lilies by the mailbox are putting out lots of new growth too. We'll get another couple of hard freezes that will burn this foliage, but that's what happens every year. It didn't seem to affect them at all when it came time to bloom.



On the slope, about 2 dozen of the 200 daffodils I planted this winter have sprouted.



The red maples by the street are starting to bloom. All they needed was a little warmth. The flowers are tiny and red, mostly insignificant. You can only see them if you know what you're looking for.



By the garage door, at the top of the retaining wall, I've finally realized what these are. In the fall of 2008 I received some Carolina Cherry Laurel seeds from a City-Data user. She also sent some hardy palm seeds. I cannot remember, or find in any of my notes, the name of this palm. She told me it reseeds for her and she moves the babies around the yard. I'll transplant these to the perennial bed where I have other tropical-like foliage in another few weeks.



I pruned the fig I grew from cuttings this year. I stuck the branches where I want them to grow at the corner of the yard along the street. I did this with butterfly bush last year and had great results. I'm hoping the crape myrtles and this fig do the same. The crape myrtles I've done are Dynamite. It's a dark red mid summer bloomer. The cuttings inside in the orchid mix have leafed out, but no sign of roots yet. Patience, grasshopper.



And then, I pruned the double pink Althea I purchased last year for a song on clearance. The soil they were potted in was mostly bark and these were always wilted in the Garden Center. We marked them down. I bought the last one just as someone else came in looking for them. You snooze, you lose.



The limbs of the althea were also pushed into the soil around the Neighbor's Corner. I've already got seedlings of the purple and white single vartieties back there. Crape Myrtle seedlings, Ligustrums, Loropetalum, and lots of other huge shrubs are being forced to compete. The winners will shield the backyard from the prying eyes of neighbors. The losers will be removed at some future point.

It's still foggy. At 47 degrees, I'll be working sleeveless in a couple of hours. Tomorrow, more rain is in the forecast. I'm preparing to do some work inside. I'm just not sure what my focus will be on, yet. I'm guessing the kitchen.