How is it possible that the lawn needed to be mowed at the end of February?!  Usually, I get to wait until the end of March, but I should have mowed it this past weekend and decided to do other chores with my limited time, instead.

I pruned the heck out of a wild rose at the end of the driveway.  Grown from an arboretum seed, this rose is very vigorous and should have been planted a little farther into the yard, away from the driveway and the street.  Inevitably, it grows long canes that reach out and scratch cars and visitors alike.  I cut it way back to the main woody canes–about 4′ at the tallest.  It will spring back to life and get to 10+ feet again by the end of summer.  This rose gets elegant light pink, single flowers, and is festooned with elongated, scarlet hips all winter long–festive for holiday decorating and just adding lovely color to the garden in the gray months.

I planted the seedling sweet peas out near the berry trellises on Sunday, too.  I’m hopeful the slugs will leave them alone and the cold weather won’t bother them.  They were healthy starts and I didn’t want them to get pot bound, as that tends to slow them down or stop them growing altogether.  My hope is that the peas will bloom early and long and attract pollinators to the berry flowers as they appear, increasing the crops and adding interest and fragrance to that area of the garden.

I checked out the seed flats and the only noticeable growth is with the Lathyrus mix that I planted several weeks ago.  About nine different seedlings were showing through the soil.  I’ve left the wallflower seedlings out to harden off and they seem no worse for wear.  Likely, they will find a place in the garden next weekend.

In the greenhouse, the clivias are starting to spike, which means that I really need to reorganize next weekend and move these bold plants out where I can make sure they get watered and where their lovely flowers can be enjoyed.

I have started dozens of these amaryllis relatives from seed and many of them have never bloomed before, so I’m excited to see the colors and flower shapes.

Other plants that are getting flowers are the masdevallia orchids.  I divided one plant into four last year and all of them are healthy and setting flowers.  The flowers look like this:

The Veltheimia in the greenhouse is blooming, as well, all the way at the far end that I can only reach with great effort, moving some of the winter-stored plants out of the way.

I also spent some time tearing ivy off of the giant Douglas fir tree in the yard.  I like having ivy in the bed around the tree–it covers and drapes well.  But you have to manage it, or the tree will get devoured and the ivy will bloom and set seed, which isn’t fair to nature or neighbor.

I finished the Chatto/Lloyd gardening letter book I was reading.  It had a few good pieces of advice and mostly was inspiring in hearing older gardeners who had loved gardening their whole lives and their passion for it didn’t fade but got stronger.

My newest garden read, and one that I’m extremely excited about is local author Ann Lovejoy’s “Handbook of Northwest Gardening”.    So far, this book appears to be an extremely sensible and intelligent planning guide for transforming a house lot into a useful, beautiful garden space.  I like the way Ms. Lovejoy spells out the steps and the problem-solving techniques.  It doesn’t hurt that the book deals very specifically with the challenge I’m facing–recreating a garden from the lawn and old shrubs that exist here in my yard.

So, off to read more about what I might someday get to do when time and finances allow!