I wanted to start all of my spring seeds weeks ago but I've been so busy I've had to postpone gardening. I can't express how badly I've looked forward to spring all winter. This winter was so rainy and wet and depressing that the arrival of spring has been anticipated greatly.

Even though I haven't done much gardening as spring weather arrives, that doesn't mean my garden isn't working on it's own. We had a weird spell of 70 degree weather in February which triggered my blueberry bushes to wake up and start flowering. After flowers come blueberries!!! Sadly, cold weather came back but having planted container blueberry bushes I dragged the suckers into my kitchen where they've been warm and cozy in front of the sliding glass doors.

My Container Garden Waking Up

My red and pink currant bushes also woke up. Both plants lost their leaves early last year and I feared they both died but I guess they just went dormant early at the end of summer. I was so happy when leaves started shooting out and now the beginning of flowers is starting. Hopefully, this year I'll get my very first pink and red currant berries to eat.

And last years raspberries!!! Those plants are beasts! I've got four container raspberry plants that are growing like crazy. My Fall Gold yellow raspberries never went dormant and were nice and perky even in 10 degree weather. Raspberries are super cold hardy. All four plants have new shoots coming up from the dirt and I'm going to try to dig some up and transplant them for more plants.

I took a walk and found that my asparagus from last year is starting to come up which makes me so happy. I started them from seeds last summer. It takes a few years for them to establish before you can cut asparagus to eat so it's a project for future eating. I also noticed some of my Lily bulbs survived. I planted them last spring but never saw them sprout and I figured they were all duds. I was happily surprised to see maybe four Lilies growing in the empty patch of dirt where I planted them. I had originally planted three different varieties so I have no idea which survived. It'll be cool to see what colors emerge.

My Fall Gold Raspberries Doing Wonderfully

New perennial arrivals for this year?

Every year I add new perennial plants to my garden which will provide for us more many, many years. This year I'm adding quite a few plants.

• I ordered two honeyberry shrubs (a honeysuckle plant with blue edible berries) just because it looks cool.
• I got a black currant bush so I have one of all three colors available
• I'm adding a few more blueberry bushes (one is called Razz which has a raspberry flavor).
• I got a dwarf cherry tree to see if I can grow it in a large pot.

New annual plants for this year?

• This is the year of tomatoes. I've got six different kinds including white tomatoes and black tomatoes. I've never seen white tomatoes so I'm super excited to see if my seeds germinate and grow.
• I'm trying to grow eggplants, cucumbers, bush beans, yellow squash, and ruby red corn.
• Red, white, and blue varieties of potatoes. I've going to test straw bale gardening with the potatoes and maybe do a few potato towers.

My New Cherry Tree

Focusing on landscaping this year:

This year I'm finally focusing on how our home looks. I have a vision of our house with lots of flowers and pretty plants specifically picked out to make our home look great. I sat down and stared at pictures of every part of our yard planning which kinds of plants I want and how I want things to look in the future. I'm going to start a few different perennial flowers this year in hopes of adding to my flower garden each year.

This year I'm planting:

• Lady of Shallot Roses
• Oso Italian Ice Roses
• Helleborus, Wedding Party First Dance: A bush that grows good in shade for the back yard.
• Chinese Lanterns: They are suppose to be an invasive plant which I hope would help cover some areas down our super long driveway
• Foxglove
• Lunaria

Watering My Container Garden With Little Rabbit

I started germinating tomato seeds in paper towels and have transferred the seedlings into pots. I've also gotten my new perennial plants and have them in pots inside until the weather warms up and I can move them outdoors. It's driving me crazy not being able to garden much yet. The temperatures have been going up and down so I can't plant seeds outdoors until next month.

Little Rabbit is a danger to starting seeds indoors. She loves to play in the dirt and took out my first set of seedlings by sneaking into the kitchen while mommy and daddy were sleeping and dumped all the dirt out. I've got boxes blocking off my seedling table from her but the boxes make it hard to water the plants. Once the last frost date passes I'll be so happy. I look forward to warm weather and planting more seeds.

On another note I haven't posted on here in a long time. I just felt like taking a writing break to enjoy life. I haven't opened my laptop in two weeks so this is the first time I've written anything in a while. Sometimes it's nice to toss aside technology and enjoy spending time with Little Rabbit and taking walks outdoors with all the spring flowers blooming all around. I haven't missed my laptop at all. The beginning of spring is such a nice time to experience.