Floral, your garden may be small, but big impact!! Beautiful! You are ahead of where I am for sure. Zone 8/9 is a lot different than z6 here.

Beautiful, Floral!

A few crocus are blooming, but the majority have not; I suspect they will be within a week or so, which is pretty much right on time -- end of March. Other than that, that's it. Lots of fat buds and green growth poking through, but just not time yet for the show to begin.

My mason bees did start emerging in the fridge downstairs (they're in a container). I think what happened is someone (me? DH?) accidentally moved the temperature knob so it wasn't cold enough to keep them dormant. Fortunately I caught it before a lot of them emerged. I dialed the temp back down and put some sugar-soaked cotton balls in the container to keep the other ones alive until they can go out. If temps stay at least in the 50s for another two weeks or so, early bloomers should be going by then (mainly the lawn and pasture weeds).

The snow is melting here, and the first signs of spring are beginning. I can't get my hopes up too much since we usually have a few more snows and hard freezes. The robins are back, and the redwings have been back for a while. Unfortunately, I saw a grasshopper too.

Shot Weed heaven at my place. I....hate...shot weed....

Heirloom peonies down front are just emerging. I'll admit I never weed the long row until summer and then not very vigilantly. The peonies do wonderful, so many blooms despite tall grass up though them (I admit).

Well, I get the bright idea to dig out the grass clumps the other day - just the big grass clumps I said. Instead, I ended up taking out all grass down through the row. Now I'm thinking......was that a good idea? Every Fall I just mow off the plants. Last Fall for some reason I REALLY mowed them off causing mostly bare earth this Spring. So I threw handfuls of soil over the row in case the week of rain that's in the forecast decides to puddle there. ugh. After 40yrs. sometimes leaving well enough alone is best.

ETA: The peonies have been growing there many years prior to my moving here.

The last two days have been glorious! Almost too warm to work (I usually follow the shade around to work in it, but there is none yet lol!)

Mostly just doing some cleanup. We had some HUGE limbs come down over the winter. Which is good, since they've been hanging up in the trees since one of the last storms this past summer. Luckily when they finally came down they did not hurt people or property. We had to get a chainsaw and chop them up, so that's done. Cleaning out beds, raking leaves (sheesh, I do enough of that in fall!).

I've read a few comments about things being dry, and though that was odd, as my yard seems like it's in its usual spring damp. But today I was cutting down a small tree, and noticed a shrub I just planted last year next to it, and the soil actually looked dry! It IS in more sun than most things, at the top of a small slope, so maybe that's it.

Crocus are up in the lawn, snowdrops, nigella, larkspur, and feverfew seedlings. Buds on some shrubs and roses.

Cut back and cut out a lot of forsythia today. Wish I had never planted the darn thing, but it does give some privacy till I replace it. It went from one shrub to five or six, so ripped out all but one. What a chore. Hours - plus raking all the leaves under them lol!

I have sprouts in about 15 of my wintersowing containers, so that's always exciting.

I just told someone the other day that I had been waiting impatiently, chomping at the bit, for this warm weather, so I could get outside and work. And then I started thinking about ALL THE WORK that needs to be done out there. Ugh. It can be overwhelming.

Googled shot weed. Yup, I got it. And yup, I hate it too!

Sam I saw a grasshopper too today! Was kind of surprised to see one so early!

Floral your garden is absolutely lovely. The very picture of spring. How wonderful!

:)
Dee

P.S. Was VERY brave and pruned a clematis yesterday! Those of you who know me here know how terrified of pruning I am lol! Maybe I shouldn't brag till later in the season when I see how it does.....

P.P.S. Just ran outside, and editing this to add columbine seedlings are up, spanish bluebells are up, and hellebores in bloom!

Well, I feel weird. I should be later than all of you. My crocus have been emerging since before the cold snap last week. In fact, some of the emerged blooms didn't do too well when the temps dropped to the low 20s. But, more have emerged and are emerging to replace them. These are some HARDY suckers. (Not hardy in the traditional garden sense, and not suckers in the traditional garden sense, so maybe they're not hardy suckers.) These are some TOUGH cookies. I planted many many many of these bulbs the year before I redid the whole bed by tilling in about a foot total of loan, compost, and peat. These crocus are the ones that survived the tilling. I really can't believe it when I see them each year! The clumps continue to grow. Maybe they're an early blooming variety, because I can't imagine mine blooming before PM's.

I don't have much else happening except basal foliage (Columbine canadensis, oriental poppy to name two) just beginning. I have peeked at some things in delight under the leaves. Last year Goldheart Dicentra stole the show near the house this time of year, so I moved all of them into that locale last fall. It is so nice to park at the door and see those guys glowing in the afternoon sun. They have eyes ready to emerge. (Peeked at them in delight, too.) Forsythia buds are swelling but they won't bloom until early May most likely.

As for winter sowing, only Clarkia, which is always first, and stock have emerged. Poppies are about ready. Diggerdee, I'm nowhere near 15 containers!

The sunsets are still beautiful, the water is losing it's wintertime dazzling glow as the sun moves higher, but soon we'll see more waterfowl and the occasional seal return. For now it is nice to hear the geese and loons. And, I'm adjusting so I wake up with the DS time change, which is a sure sign of spring. That sleepless week is not a welcome sign of spring, but it is at least a predictable one.

This is the first nice week we have had since fall. The daffodils, day lilies, and iris are popping up. I have been outside yesterday and today stripping grass, weeds off a hill side and transplanting. It would be easier if the ground wasn't so rocky. My body is letting me know I haven't done any physical labor all winter.

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]

Heavy into early spring pruning- I can now see the damage to some of my small trees from the ice storm, so I'm getting them cleaned up. I had to remove several conifers after that storm as well, so prepping the beds for their new additions.

Spring weeding is always my biggest chore, but I cleaned up pretty well last fall so it should go faster this year. I've just had 15 yards of mulch delivered and need to get that down before the weeds realize how warm it is. So that means this weekend, lol, pity me.

A bit of moving/relocating a few perennials and finding spots for all the daylilies I ordered last fall and stuck into whisky barrels to overwinter.

All told I'm ahead of schedule. And so far only four plant orders in progress.

Last year was slim pickings locally because Covid, but I've had my two vaccinations and am ready to go shopping in person as soon as the stores realize that spring is springing!

Nice to hear how similar we all are, even if a few have it warmer and plenty have it colder. I just finished cleaning up yesterday, and now it's on to all the other stuff that always comes up. Same tired muscles, overwhelmed feeling, and then bit by bit you get there. Crazy that the last of the snow only just melted a week or two ago and now the snowdrops are out and some over, and the crocus are starting.

It goes so fast when it's warm. Actually Sunday I waited until around 4 so that the sun was a little lower and it wasn't so hot for cleanup. There will be plenty of sweating in August, no need to rush it.

btw this is what I consider to be "cleaned up". Perennials are cut down but I leave a lot of debris and also throw more chopped leaves around if I can spare them. Over the years I've been spreading snowdrops and winter aconite through this bed, this is the first year they're almost noticeable!

prariemoon: I'm in SE Michigan, far enough out of the metro area to be zone 5.

Nice to see what everyone one else is doing! We still have snow although it’s melting fast. I’ve removed burlap from my younger arborvitaes and that’s the extent of my garden chores! Oh that and checking 4-5 times a day for crocus, tulips, daffodils, etc. :)