It bloomed in time for my birthday :)

the season's first crocus

Mike got me really beautiful flowers, too, but I couldn't capture their beauty with my camera. Maybe I'll try again in the daylight.


It was soooo warm today, and I got a bunch more leaf clearing done. We moved the outdoor furniture back outdoors, and yesterday I washed all my gardening gloves. Can't wait to clean out the garage and make a dedicated gardening area! I also gathered some containers, cleaned out dead stuff and planted one pot with the tulips and hyacinths that never made it into the ground last Fall. We'll see how they do.

In all my excitement, I decided I should get to planning the container plantings. I opened my bday presents on birthday eve so I could play with them on my birthday, since I have the day off. Now I have a real reason to plan my container gardens!


Mike bought me two really nice big planters that I can use for flowers. I mean, these are seriously big planters that need more than just a few leftover flowers tossed into them! I'm really looking forward to this! I also got a great garden-themed gift from Mike's mom, which included some sweet gardening tools and gardening stamps. I'm set!

Bring on the grow lights!

-----Update-----

The chipmunk got the yellow crocus! So now we're using Liquid Fence (contains smelly eggs and garlic) and blood meal sprinkled around the flowers. Hope it works! Thankfully it left this new crocus for me :)


I also started looking for some flowers to fill my new big pots. I read that you're supposed to use a thriller, fillers, and spillers to make a good container. The thriller is the tall interesting plant in the middle, the fillers are the flowers and foliage in the middle, and the spillers tumble down the sides. The one I'm having the hardest time with is the "thriller." Most interesting tall plants only seem to bloom for a short time; cannas, delphiniums, tulips or irises, are all ideas I've had, but they only last so long. Another good idea I got today was replacing plants in your containers through the season. I mean, why not? There's not reason it has to be one container that stays there all season. But we'll see!

If you have a favorite container plant, note it in the comments to share your experience and ideas!