So one of the few perennials I am growing from seeds this year is Shepherd's Scabiosa. I bought the seeds from Wal-mart or Canadian Tire or somewhere like that one day on a whim because I thought they looked pretty. So far they have been a bit of a pain, because just after they germinated a whitish-yellow powdery mould covered the surface of the soil in the entire tray of plants. That seems to have dissipated since I transplanted them, and they finally seem to be taking off. I planted them 5 weeks ago - and this is what they look like now.

I was playing with my digital camera and my photo-editor today... Let me know what you like - and any suggestions for taking "artsy" nature photos. I am not very experienced, and I do my editing in Picassa usually - it's a free program from google, and it's alright - I'm sure people who actually know what they are doing don't like it...

Crocuses using the macro feature and edited to have a film grain

Tulips on macrofeature with the fill light increased and with the film grain effect:

Crocus with a soft-focus effect:

Things are starting to happen. There are sprouts and buds everywhere!! And, the grass is starting to dry out and turn green. And, I am starting to notice all the work that there is to do.

This week I hope to:
1-Shovel the rest of the snow piles around so they melt.
2-Rake the grass.
3-Clean up the branches, berries, and mess from windy winter weather.
4-Rip out front planters and replace with new ones. (My mother-in-law) bought me huge beautiful planters for my birthday!
5-Start ripping out garden at back to re-build and make room for my peonies and sweet peas.
6-Move and fix the composter.
7- Pull the BBQ out and have a delicious BBQ burger!

Here is some pictures of the fresh new growth in the garden. My crocuses were flowering this morning, but when I went to take a picture, they were closed up. Hopefully I can catch them tomorrow!

Rhubarb - 1 of 2 plants in my yard. I do not know what I am going to do with it all.

This is the garden I am going to dig out. I do not like any of the stuff in it anyways. Basically, I am going to turn it into a rectangle. I plan to put a peony where the roundish mound is right now, and grow sweet peas up the rails of the porch. And, maybe some other perennials - but I am not sure yet.

I cannot wait for the leaves to bud!

I transplanted some of my pepper seedlings into bigger pots today - and a few of them aren't quite so happy:

Hopefully they will pop back up in a couple hours...

I'm new to garden blogging and have been having a hard time getting visitors to my site, and getting my blog high up in the google search list. From what I can tell, links are the key - of which I have none - so I was starting to get a little discouraged about my blog - and then I found blotanical. Blotanical is an online garden community that connects garden bloggers from around the world together. Almost immediately after joining, I had increased traffic to my blog - from all sorts of places around the world. I have also met someone from my region, and another young couple also renovating their new house and landscaping their new yard - it encourages me that I have found some people like me. Unfortunately, (or fortunately - I guess it depends on your outlook) I have spent NUMEROUS hours on this website since I found it - and I may have to limit my hours once I go back to work at the end of the week.

Another reason I like blotanical is that it keeps track of the garden blogs I like for me - You get your own little "plot" where you can add favourite blogs and bloggers. I was having a hard time keeping track of what I was reading online and like this new organized way to read other people's blogs. It has a few little quirky navigational things that are somewhat counter-intuitive, and makes finding pages tricky once in awhile, but as far as I can tell - it is a fairly new community and the webmaster is working on ironing out all the little kinks relatively quickly.

I have added the banner on my sidebar to take you to the site (although I expect that's how most people have found lately)
and here's the direct link:
http://www.blotanical.com/

Happy Blogging!

Alright, so it snowed this morning...again. About an inch...sigh - But the new snow now mostly melted in the sunny areas of my yard, so I took a walk to look at the few things that are growing - and to try and get a picture of the birds that are trying to make their home in my garage. No luck with the birds, but I did find this: