Gardener Blues: Is Winter Over Yet??

Okay, so the extended winter season may be getting you a little down. I know I am - I've had to postpone planting my seedling starters due to snow flurries where I'm at. So, what can be done? Other than the mediocre tedium of de-weeding garden beds, that is.

Start seedlings indoors, is my advice. The bright side of this is that you can get a head start on your annual and perennials while also giving you the opportunity to watch something -- by god -- grow, rather than start considering re-enacting scenes from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" after seeing one too many grey skies.

Here's a pic of some of my starters. I really recommend those cheesy mini-greenhouse starter kits. They're reusable and consider it an investment in your sanity if you cannot excuse it any other way.


As you can see, I've gone with a labeling system which, while resourceful, isn't terribly attractive by any means. Scrawling each starter's plant type in Sharpie marker on duct tape may not be for everyone. ;-)

Also of note, I've seen some very interesting birds around the feeders lately. Just yesterday, we spotted a Red-Winged Blackbird, but of course it flew off before I could retrieve my camera. No matter - I've found a picture of one online so you know what I'm speaking of, assuming you're as novice at birding as I am.


Keep sane, fellow gardeners. Spring has to come eventually......right?

The Mystery of the Disapproving Garden Visitor.

At first, I thought it was my imagination.

My new garden bed, which I'm building upon in stages, with its carefully laid-out and planned organization...has had some changes. I have, for instance, a row of Sweet Peas in front of the Magnolia. Pristine, orderly. Until I noticed that one of the fledgling plants had been moved and a mound of dirt was piled up where it once was.

I laughed that off, of course. Put it back.

The next day, it was placed back in the out-of-synch place I'd found it in before. After the third time this happened, I simply let it stay there and made sure it was more firmly buried. It hasn't been shifted about since.

Other weird things, too. Like a bud snipped off and placed near its plant. A leaf growth likewise pruned and placed near where it belongs.

I'd blame deer by default, but the problem is that I know that when our local deer come 'round to forage, they operate on a scorched-earth policy. Even plants that are decidedly poisonous to eat can and will be eaten by the deer out here. Now, if everything were eaten down to nubs, that would be no mystery. But this? This is like some bloody brownie has come in the bed, turned its elfish nose up at my sweet peas and done little changes.

Don't worry if you think I'm gone mad - some loopy gardener that no doubt speaks to cats. I really do not blame you.

Today, there were some tracks or something in the dirt. I tried to take a picture, but you still can't make it out much. Behold, the bemusing mystery of the midnight garden critic I'm encountering:


The tracks, though relatively unclear (my apologies) are the darker indents in the mulch. Who knows? It is, however, funny to me, so I thought I would share it.

Also - look who is fully blooming at last!

Waiting For Blue Skies and Watching the Robins...

A strange cat has recently decided to live on our porch. It's very sweet, albeit I suspect it has mange. Oh and also, when it yowls at us (which is every time anyone steps outside), it has the kind of voice which sounds like it's been chain-smoking, drinking low-grade bourbon and singing cabaret in seedy bars for 40 years. Oh, if only I were being entirely facetious here.

Anyways, today's share for you all is the Pasque Flower specimen I have growing in the newest garden bed (along with a Magnolia, Grape Hyacinth, Dwarf Tulips, Heather, Dusty Miller, Dahlia, Sweet Pea, red Asiatic Lily and Bachelor's Buttons). Right now, the bed looks spartan and thin, but come summer it will be a lot more abundant. I also plan on adding the Alyssium seedlings I've started up indoors and the Lobellia, maybe some Oriental Poppy.

We'll see how it turns out. In the meantime, I have a ton of starter seedlings in mini-greenhouses, need to till up the old harvest from last year and plant a ton of things after March 20th, the slated time slot for last frost of the season.

Fresh Beginnings with a High Chance of Rain.

And lots of it, at that.

I had intended to sneak outside and take new photographs of the plants, trees and garden beds gracing the yard only to be -- alas -- stopped by monsoon-like weather conditions.

I did manage to upload a few photos just now, however, from earlier explorations this week. I'm far too excited by the first hints of spring. Enjoy.

The picture above is one of our potted plant arrangements. The center is taken up by a Hellebore, which I highly recommend for an easy-care Northwest shade garden plant. At the front and to the left is a Dusty Miller and to the front-right is a Primrose.

Here's some early spring-time action in one of the front garden beds: Lily of the Nile, Narcissus, Pansy, a
thick and thorny stalk of our climbing rose "New Dawn" and a barely-visible grape vine.