You could come over here and tackle the rampant weeds :-)

I'll be planting 9 containers this year but will wait until April to be sure the roots don't freeze.

Also need to plant supposedly indestructible grass on walking pathways which are mud. Previous stuff couldn't handle the traffic. If this grass doesn't work, flagstones will go in next year.

Tons of pruning to do now, weeding, cutting zealous grass that's grown up the trunks of the creeklet tree trunks.

Finally time to clean out the catmint beds, the dead stalks of astilbe and peonies etc. The hot pokers look like they were run over and need to be cut way back. It's clean-up time! Gotta get the ground ready for stuff to come up. Then I'll fertilize absolutely everything. I've had really good luck fertilizing Feb 1, May 1, and August 1. Running behind this year because the weather's been so inclement and the yard is still under water.

This Feb 1 and May 1 fertilization target dates are the last I'll have to buy fertilizer. By this summer the worm bin will be producing enough worm castings to do the entire yard, over 300 trees, every year. All those leaves get recycled into the worm bin after Autumn and we get free horse manure and use kitchen scraps to keep the worms happy and multiplying.

Last year I planted some trees around this time and they took well. Do you want to plant trees and bushes?

It certainly feels like Spring today, weak sunshine, 61 degrees in the yard, birds flirting flitting raising a ruckus. Saw a very bright green little frog jump into a creeklet.

Anybody whose yard is already perfect and itching to work, come over here! LOL

Read about winter sawing. gardenweb has wintersawing forum, they are starting everything just now.

You can plant whatever you find in area nurseries. Lots have already stocked their bare root offerings for the season - roses, fruit trees and berries, an assortment of deciduous trees and shrubs. It's also hellebore season and many varieties of winter blooming heathers still available. Now's also a good time to find lots of winter interest plants - witch hazels, wintersweet, skimmia, sarcococca, mahonias, daphne, etc. And for those of us who forgot or didn't find the time, spring bulb packs are in to add those bright splashes of color spring blooming bulbs provide.

Both the higher temperatures and the lack of rain provided nearly ideal winter gardening weather yesterday. I spent the day doing a seriously overdue clean up as well as a lot of pruning and grooming. Made notes on some changes I plan to do as soon as more gardening time becomes available and did an extended tour of all parts of the garden to check the status of various things and to try and prioritize the work that needs to be done. Was delighted to see some forgotten crocus up and in bloom, snowdrops in bud, a young witch hazel that was tiny at purchase finally blooming a firey red and fat buds on the ribes and star magnolia. Most of my hellebores are in bloom or very close to it. And I picked a big bunch of sarcococca to take indoors that has perfumed my entire first floor - it was a pretty great day, all in all!!

Lots of perennials can be started now, especially if they need a cold stratification. Just planted a couple hundred New Zealand delphiniums in big plastic salad containers and put them in the frige for cold-moist stratification.

I started many perennials already in Jan. You should check out the winter sowing forum to learn more about planting things in the dead of winter. Gives you something to do during those months when you're watching it rain.
Duane

Have you hear the singer "Akon" do a newer version of "Wanna Be Startin Something?" It's pretty cool.

Now I have that song stuck in my head.

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses!

Did my clean up and general garden grunt work in January, so am really ready just to play a bit and get my fingers dirty -- but not muddy. Winter sowing sounds like a great fix for what ails me!

Oh, and City Chicken, yes, I do like his cover of the MJ song. As a riff on your name, and a means to get one song unstuck (unfortunately, by getting another one stuck in its place), sing a few bars of, "If You'll Be My Dixy Chicken, I'll Be Your Tennessee Lamb."

Happy weekend, all!

Rain