Oh, am I EVER dreaming of spring! :) I have been saving through the winter to afford some new beds that I am going to put in. Last fall, I marked off a place in my front yard where I will create a flower bed: perennials esp. prairie flowers, roses, annuals. I put down newspaper, cardboard, grass clippings, and leaves, and covered the whole thing with black landscaping material. I am going to put in a four-length (32'), split-rail PVC fence in the middle of the bed to use for climbing plants as I acquire them. Last week I ordered two raised bed kits to put in my backyard for veggies, herbs, and a garden plot for my 5-yr-old. I have clay soil where I live in Northeast Wisconsin. I do have a decent sized in-ground established veggie/herb garden (18' x 24'). I have been composting and amending the soil in that garden for almost 10 years, and the clay and rock seem to still be winning. I hope the raised beds will give me an opportunity to grow some root veggies (carrots, radishes) that I can't grow in the clay. I ordered three roses from David Austin Roses for the front bed I am going to establish, which was my big splurge. I have three Austin roses already, and I really like them, and they survive our cold winters. I ordered Lady Emma Hamilton, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Jude the Obscure. After seeing some of the pictures of these roses in the Rose Forum, I can't wait to see how these will bloom in a few years! Other than my rose order from TX, I planted what seems like TONS of garlic last fall that I ordered from Seed Savers from Decorah, IA. I hope all the garlic might keep some bunnies away. Hope! I usually purchase most of my plants from a local nursery, "Pansies," which has been around, I think, since the 1950s and run by Mr. and Mrs. Pansy. Mrs. Pansy is in her 80s now and lives across the street from the nursery. She finally sold the business about three years ago. I miss seeing her expertise, but I am glad the new owners are continuing to run the nursery in a similar way. I hope that I won't have to purchase any plants this year because I am winter sowing. :) I purchased seeds from Pansies, and I will be purchasing quite a bit of compost and perlite from them to put in my new beds. I think it will even out. :) Sorry this is so long. RIght now, I spend so much time thinking and dreaming about what I am going to do in my yard this year. My husband's eyes glaze over when I start talking about it too much. :) Thanks for giving me another opportunity to talk about my garden and the promise of spring. It's 10 degrees according to my outdoor thermometer. Looking out at my WS containers, it is hard to believe I might be outside putting together my bed kits in three weeks. I hope so! Cheers, Nora Belle

Hi everyone. I'm new. I've been looking for a Canadian site where things might be a little closer to my growing zone and I'm glad to be here. We moved here 16 years ago so this property is really very "done" now. I have far more garden beds than I want to keep up with these days so the plan this year is to once more plant a few more shrubs to replace flowering perennials and annuals. I've been growing more and more veggies and so I'm planning to work in a few plastic tunnels for early spring planting in spots. I plan to move a few perennials to make a few spaces the width of the beds in which I can plant extra tomatoes and carrots and that sort of thing. We'll see how I feel about that as the summer progress' and we see how it presents itself. I have a good sized bed near the kitchen door that sits on the top of a rock wall and last fall we removed a lot of plants from that bed. I've decided to remove almost all plants and use it for an herb garden. It's very hot and sunny and dry.....if I keep it watered nicely it should be perfect for herbs. I have early seedlings going in the greenhouse now...things that I want for my containers so they can get going early and be potted up. It's just enough to give me something to dream on while we wait for the full seeding that will happen at the end of the month. I bring them in for the overnights right now and take them back out in the morning. We have a forced air heater in there so everything is toasty (and I've been sunbathing.......oh that's heavenly!)

One of my giant loropetalums was in stunning bloom today when I pulled in to park in front of it. A surprising sight in the middle of January lol. And we've had our share of below freezing nights, not to mention several hours of snow yesterday. It just hasn't stayed cold for any length of time or plummetted past the mid twenties at night. Weird winter indeed.

Amy, I know I've commented on your garden before. It's just perfect. Exactly what I want the front of my house to look like. I have the river birch, dwarf evergreen, iris, tree peony, ferns, hostas, lavender, coral bells, sedum, azalea, hydrangea, , korean lilac, frothergilla, hardy geraniums, balloon flowers, coneflowers, holly, chelone, liatris, lillies, rose and boxwood. I wintersowed Sweet William, Lauren poppies and sea holly that should bloom this year. My problem is I can't get it in my head how many plants it takes to fill in the space. I think I am putting in a lot, but then it still looks bare. The garden is going on its fifth year. I should have my act together by now. I'll try to post some spring shots later. I'm down with the flu on the laptop and the pictures are on the office computer. Thanks for sharing again!