Loads of Crocus out round here plus all the usual suspects. Snowdrops have been out since a few days after Christmas and some daffodils are in bud already. I find that as long as I spend time outdoors every day there’s never really a dormant period. There’s always something to see growing.

A very appropriate thread for me today! I just returned from outside, taking advantage of the bit of warmer weather which has caused most of the snow to melt or be washed away (it rained all last night) to go outside and do some winter clean up. This winter cleanup isn't the good stuff, but rather the trash and stuff which gets buried under snow, etc. When I walked through the gardens, I honestly didn't feel one iota of Spring Awakening or anxiety.

As posierosie said, in my neck of the woods, January and February are typically the most bitter months; though this year we got an early taste of that in December, so I don't know if that means the next few months will be easier.

That being said, it was nice to get outside and be able to do some clean up.

When the temps rise and the snow melts...The gardens are all in view. A twinge of excitement overcomes me and then reality sets in...The weather is just wacky and it’s wayyy too early. I know this, as the annoying weatherman reminds us daily...we still have two months left of winter :( mother nature just loves to tease us....

January and February are the dead months here too. By early March there is hope of seeing bulbs starting and buds on trees swelling and weeping willows and some other things start showing color changes along stems. Spring is often late and cold here because the lake is cold, so it’s usually well into April before the temperature and general conditions are sufficient to motivate me to do much in the garden! It’s not uncommon to need to wear a ski jacket in the garden in early May :-)

The only garden-related thing I do this month (and into February if I’m extra lazy...) is to update my blog maintenance manual site for changes to the garden last year and plans for this year. That helps me sort out priorities for this year. I used to take some on-line garden courses at the University of Guelph but I’ve taken all the ones that interest me. DH always gives me some garden books at Christmas so I’m working my way through those (currently reading Roy Lancaster’s ‘My life with plants’).

I hate winter!!

I always have to poke. I will be in two layers of bathrobes, rubber boots, coffee I hand as I stumble around the dark garden while my two labs get out their morning zoomies.

The daffy’s need to get a little taller and the peony eyes a little bigger. Soon it will be time to prune and THEN Spring will be so close....until Mother Nature decides to play a dirty trick!

Snow melting, birds singing, and the first Crocus flower. Gets me going every year.
I'm still waiting for these things to happen. Come on, March!

Bright sunlight - can tell the days are getting longer, and the light is slowly getting brighter as the days go by.

Something that I think we perhaps don't appreciate, Campanula, is that our grass is always green. We don't appreciate that we never have to look at brown fields or lawns. Of course the grey rain-laden cloudy skies which make that possible can be a bit of a downer.

the vision of fresh Dahlia flowers (yes, the ghastly, big-ish, colorfull ones) while checking the stored tubers, emerging ephemerals (to throw around an fancy word), first winter aconites (Eranthis) and Crocus, and even flowering Prunus, probably subhirtella Autumnali,

reading green books or researching new-to-me plants...

The allotment is brown-ish, but covering the soil with plant bits/ mulch helps a little, perhaps I get some light pruning done.

oh, and it seems, that floral wins the daff race,

just yesterday I noticed foliage of probaly large common ones peeking out of the ground, but no bud in sight...

Like everyone else who lives in the northern tier of the US & southern Canada, spring is at least 2 months away. However, in mid-February my pruning fingers will start to itch. I have already made several rounds of the gardening staring at trees & shrubs (I am sure my neighbors think I am batty) to see what needs to be done.

I have noticed tiny little finger tips of daffodils just slightly pushing out all over my garden. Some started in November. If I dig under the fallen leaves (which I did this weekend), all sorts of leaves are piercing the first layer or so, but not ready yet to commit to coming out fully. Smart of them as who knows what February might bring?

My lawn is a complete soggy mess. Otherwise, this might be a good time to reallocate some daffodils in the garden as I can see where they are. I have a new extension that is barely discernible except for the Spring where you can clearly see the previous boundary with a mass on daffodils curving along it.

In truth, the seasonality of weather up in the cooler zones is completely essential for this idle gardener. The lengthy autumn, stretching through till Christmas is exhausting...and I can only manage it all by having a generous slacking off time in summer...when apart from watering (bad enough) not a single garden task occurs throughout all of July and August. Since owning some unkempt land, I have an entirely different take on weeds (why bother)...and although it is cold and wet, January and February are actually busy times...but I am just not feeling the love. True, I should have been a bit more forward thinking before acquiring far too many enormous roses and far too many fiddly trained fruit trees...but by the time I have layered up (vest, base layer, long sleeved T-shirt,, jumper, jacket, bodywarmer, leggings, trousers, several pairs of socks (I am exhausted just typing it, never mind stuffing myself into these daily clothing piles)...and standing still pruning for hours...it feels less like gardening and a lot more like some tedious Dickensian toil...in many shades of brown - and yes, Floral, I concede there is still plenty of green, but even so...it really takes the arrival of bloom and blossom (although I do love that particular shade of new green leaf)...before I feel I am not just labouring, but gardening.

We just went through a colder than normal burst of arctic air so things are pretty burnt here. BUT my sweet peas are sprouting and my vegetable garden which I protected is green as can be. I have sugar snaps sprouting and arugula. The cat is rolling in the warm sunshine. It was in the 70's yesterday. and the fire ants are out in the sun too. I need to chop some cedar... God am I late to this chore. I did go around and chop back my salvia greggii's today. I love the smell of it on my hands. Only thing better is the smell of damianita on my hands.

Unlike the various eastern responders I live in the North American analog to Britain - although a normal Seattle summer = a 100 year drought in London. And it is getting hotter and drier around here, with recurring sunny or otherwise mild periods seeming to have become even a winter feature. Anyway I have Chinese witch hazel in bloom - some years this starts in December. And a manzanita has been at it for awhile, I smelled some sarcococca flowers walking past plantings elsewhere, and Mahonia x media has been out for a long time, with 'Charity' now winding down - really after the storms of November and the cold of December each time the worst is over most years by now. (Although Arctic fronts can blow in anytime between Nov. and Feb., with those coming at the start of this period being the most destructive to plants). With spring considered to run from Feb. to July in W. WA, with the summer warming not beginning to dominate until that latter month.

That first day in the garden when the sun is strong and the birds are singing is what gets my spring fever up to 105. The ground may be a soggy mess and a winter storm system might be rolling in across the midwest, but I don't care. I call it spring and do it as as early as possible. Nearly every minute of being back out in the garden is a treat until that day in May when I realize I'm way behind, the weeds are back, and bugs are the most populous form of wildlife in my yard.

That three day warm spell melted off the ice and snow and brought out my first snowdrop. Even I won't call it spring though, and will likely cover it when the next arctic blast passes.

I started the annual winter marathon 'slash and burn' week before last, well not really burning but thats what I call it. We got so cold in early January it was impossible to do anything but now its warmed up nicely and its sunny so any good day that comes around, I will be beating it out there to take advantage. I can't believe how many Gregg Salvias I have, just looking at the west border out back was daunting. I putzed around in the beginning with some minor trimming & cleaning for two days, filled the trash cans twice and lots of bags with leaves. Last week I really jumped in and got serious---spent a whole day trimming a long wide row, 4 plants deep of Gregg Salvias, Mealycup Sage, winter killed Drummondii Turk's Cap stems, Lantana, Cowpen Daisy, White Mistflower, Flame Acanthus, Russian Sage, Skullcap and Artemisias (I named it Butterfly/Hummingbird Row). It reminded me of that game 'Pick up Sticks' we played as kids, just start clipping in a spot among the tangled mess and gradually it transforms from a twisted mess of over-grown, overlapping dried stems into individual shrubs. This was that first hard core, down and dirty gardening day, the one that shows you how out of shape you've gotten and you know you're gonna be sore tomorrow.

Yesterday I started attacking the front which was easier and more fun because I can squat down to do that rather than being bent over all day like I have to do trimming that other stuff (what a back ache I had). I've got bags lined up for future disposal after stuffing, shoving an pounding down as much as I can get into the two city trash bins as I can. My problem this time of year is disposal.

I've still got several shrub salvias and all-l---l----l those grasses (help!) but those won't get whacked until late February so I have some winter interest. I got my first three blisters now turning into callouses so garden season has begun.

I've got several covered plastic containers outside with seeds I collected here and there last year and some new ones from wantanamara (thank you!) getting the cold treatment. I did those during that cold stuff we got in January. I've got more set out to direct sow now that some areas are cleaned out, I'll be doing that and my mind is buzzing with where to sow what. For all practical purposes in my mind Spring 2018 has begun.

Taxes has slapped my rising sap back in to the ground......unless I get to procrastinating and developing an allergy to my computer ...and you guys. LOL. If I go back out there, I am being a bad bad girl.

You'll go.

Your right, Tx.... Even in the rain.

I didn't do a lot of gardening last year due to working on large projects, sitting on my butt indoors for hours straight everyday and I just let nature do its thing in the garden without any interference on my part. My body suffered, I didn't notice while it was happening, it rather creeped up on me. I saw a picture taken of me and was shocked (even horrified) at how thin and wasted I looked, I also got tired easily when doing anything physical. I lost a lot of weight of all things. I noticed a big difference in energy levels, strength and muscle mass. I've been working out with weights trying to get back in shape. If nothing else, gardening is good exercise without 'exercising' if you know what I mean. 30 minutes of boring exercise that I have to make myself do with the promise of a protein shake afterwards for a reward, just doesn't replace going out in the garden in the morning with the idea you are just going to walk around and then ending up spending the whole day out there when I'm being a very bad girl with no self control. I tend to do that all the time when I'm real into gardening. That bad girl stuff does have benefits so I plan to do a lot more this year than last if for no other reason....I plan to be bad.

Every year, about the last week in January, the birds, especially cardinals, begin to sing again. They are responding, I suppose, to the lengthening days. For me, that's the beginning of spring although the cold will remain, on and off, for another month or so.

My signal that the season has truly turned is literally the sap rising. I live in an area where maple sugaring is a business, so when friends start talking about checking their lines and spending the night boiling, I know that the end is in sight, and that although there will be another 6-8 weeks of winter, we are past the worst of it. Some years it starts in late January, but other years it will be as late as the end of February into early March. It's been cold enough this year so I haven't heard anything yet, but I am hopeful that in the next couple of weeks there will be steam rising from sugar houses. The other early hint of spring for me is when the owls (great horned and barred) start sounding territorial in late January. Living in an area with a barely 6 month growing season, I take comfort in small signs of emerging spring. Some years I don't have anything in bloom until a few early bulbs along the southern foundation in late March or early April.

Ditto Babs, I could have written precisely that. I am in maple syrup country too and my nearest neighbour has a big operation. There are many others but I know these people quite well. -5 at night and 5 Celsius in the day (23-41 F) is ideal for the sap to flow. It will be a while yet here.

I have crocuses (yay, the eeeevil skwerls didn't get them) and a few daffs up. Things got slammed by the freaky cold we had at the beginning of January, so I spent some time reassuring my few South African exotics (arum lilies, agapanthus, cape plumbago) that I'll still love them even if they don't bloom this year. And then I went around to the buttonbush, fringe tree, and serviceberries and asked them nicely if they'd bloom for me this year. I've yet to have flowers on any of them and they're all nicely established with several years growth.

The promise of spring flowers from my trees is my hope each spring.

Sounds so nice widdringtonia! The little bulbs are so nice in early Spring.

I take a trip to southern Arizona and that gets me happy. 70 degrees and sunny with flowers on the shrubs.

Then at home I start some seeds indoors under lights to get me through the rest of winter. That gets my sap flowing.