2010, and so it begins! Lots of ugly BEFORE pictures.

Here we go, garden season 2010.

Does anyone know what is normal anymore? Last year the land was still covered in melting snow on the first day of spring, which used to be normal.

This was the entrance to the fenced top garden on April 1 2009.

This year we had the mildest, dryest winter ever, courtesy of El Nino and melting arctic ice.
This was February 18.

We saw the first timid spring flower, a volunteer Eranthis, poke its head through the Sweet William foliage on February 27. Not March, February. That may be normal at the coast but not here.

Eranthis is one of my favorite spring flowers. I want it to spread and go wild. Once on an early spring trip to Holland my youngest sister-in-law showed me a park where a mixture of snowdrops and eranthis had gone totally wild. Gorgeous! My three original babies are working on it. They self-seed nicely but it takes a few years before they bloom from seed.

I actually did a decent job last fall. The little flower bed right by the dwelling entered winter all tidied up. I had annuals in one section, removed them, and re-planted Primroses, Lungwort, and Daffodils. They will in turn be removed in late May to be replaced with annuals like last year. I got over being a perennial snob. You gotta love marigolds.

This bed is also the place for snowdrops and crocuses. Unfortunately they get disturbed during the main season when other plants are moved or cultivated. The ideal is a pattern of fat clumps, there are too many singletons. Also the dark purple crocuses seem to be more vigorous than the lighter ones. We'll have to plant some extra whites and oranges this fall. Contrary to tulips (deer food) and daffodils (eaten by thrips) crocus does thrive and spread.

Ambitious plans exist for improving the sunny border that runs from the driveway to the dwelling. There is no reason why it cannot be 8 feet wide, instead of 4. That is the trouble when you have 10 acres  to mess around in instead of a well-defined urban lot. I tend to bite off more than I can chew, but so what. We are having fun.

Right now it looks like this:

Just wait, it will be transformed in about 2 months!
And that is just the start................