It is particularly great for me. As I think I have mentioned, last year my home was flooded, and I moved to an apt. I felt a great loss at first because my outdoor gardens were no longer part of my life. So the indoor garden was started to help me get over my sadness. That some of the plants are flowering and my leaf production is working gives me joy. (And I think all of those who have and are helping with advice).

Mxk3 - What part of the country are you in? What zone? Did you purchase mason bees somewhere? And have you done that before? I’m curious when you release them and do you attempt to provide habitat for them? Sam - Do you get snow and freezes all the way through April? Schoolhouse - I don’t have that particular weed, but I see others here that I seem to be getting more of every year. I love peonies but I don’t grow them. I had one for about 4 years and then I gave it away. It never failed to come into bloom right before a heavy rain and drop all it's petals. I barely had a bloom for 5 days. If you have a whole row of them it must be a sight to see! And you must have blooms to bring in the house. Sounds wonderful! Dee - We’ve had that happen, where a branch breaks but doesn’t fall out of the tree. [g] Glad yours finally came down safely. We have had a lot more wind than usual here. From the sounds of it, you are ahead of me with what is already growing. We had a forsythia that spread out so much we took it out. It ended up in more shade than it needed and didn’t bloom well by that time. Now I enjoy it in my neighbor’s yard. [g] And yes, looking around at everything that needs to be done….overwhelming. I’m trying to put blinders on and focus on the next step and ignore the rest. Deanna - I think there are Crocus varieties that are earlier than others. I’ve stopped adding crocus, because some critter keeps eating them. I went on a buying spree one fall and had many new varieties of crocus, including that ‘King of the Stripes’ that I like so much then after one spring of really enjoying them, they disappeared by the next year. It’s so odd that the area where I have the vinca planted under my front Maple was the only place that I didn’t lose any. And that is the oldest planting I have and it keeps coming back every year. I have to think it’s because of the vinca. Luckily it has ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ which is the very large white that I enjoy and a few others that do spread seed quite a distance, so I get a lot of surprises when they come up in other areas. But I think I’m down to about 4 different varieties and the rest are history. I comforted myself by buying more hyacinths and snowdrops and miniature daffodils that the critters don’t seem to bother. I have basal foliage for Oriental Poppies. They are so fresh so early and are not bothered by a late cold spell or more snow. Functionthenlook - I haven’t started cleaning up yet, but I can see some growth at the base of Chrysanthemums and Daylilies. Yes, the muscles are complaining at me just from a little pruning and I haven’t started doing anything difficult yet. [g]

How pretty everyone's blooms are! My chickasaw plum already finished blooming, and my macadamia tree did as well. Wild ageratum/blue mistflower has been blooming for weeks and I just love the scent. Bees and butterflies appreciate them too. Duranta is flowering a lot now and the butterflies also like that. I have a red ground orchid that's blooming and another purple phalaenopsis is budding. Some walking iris just finished too. My bok choy, wild arugula and some lettuces are bolting as well. Our neighbor has an enormous kapok tree covered with huge red blossoms - a lovely sight, but they will soon become seedpods full of cottony fluff that drifts around like snow and covers everything with filaments, and spreads seeds to sprout everywhere too - not so lovely. No good photos, sadly...

Rebecca, I know it's not funny, but I had to laugh. I just came in from the porch, I was watching a gray squirrel digging around in the front yard. I grew up on this place, and almost never saw a gray squirrel back then. We did have a lot of fox squirrels, which I liked to hunt. The grays moved around so much they were hard to hit with a .22, plus they are smaller and have less meat. I don't remember starting squash or pumpkins inside before this year, but this year I played a little and started cucumbers and Arabat winter squash inside just for the heck of it. I have 5 Arabat squash potted up out on the porch that are about 2 inches tall, the seeds were removed from a squash last Sunday afternoon. I just wanted to see if the seeds were good. When I was cleaning the seed, I noticed that some seed floated, some sank. My guess was that the better seed sank, so I dried the seeds on a shop light and planted some of the floaters, which were up in no time. I think that this may go along with what Dawn said about getting the plants in the ground soon after they sprout.