It’s official!
I’ve emerged from hibernation and am back in the garden, energized for another long gardening season here in the Pacific Northwest.
Truth be told, I’ve been out and about in the garden most of the Winter, in my new plaid “wellies”, chucking a frisbee for Lexi, our rescue corgi. She’s such a happy puppy when somebody plays frisbee with her. It’s hard not to respond when she drops a frisbee or ball by your feet.

Lexi, Frisbee Dog with soil encrusted nose…
Last Saturday, with the frisbee flying over the leaf strewn pathways, the assertive fragrance of sweet boxwood reminded me that Spring is just around the corner. Over behind one of the wrought iron garden benches, the Diane Witch Hazel was in full orange-y bloom; it’s fragrance overpowered by the boxwood. Out by the front door the Hellebores were putting on a little show cheering up a patch of rain-trodden soil. Blooms are fewer than last year, despite a liberal application of steer manure in the Fall. (Shhhsh, don’t tell the dogs about the manure. They would surely investigate when next out the front.) The flower stalks also seem more prone to breakage, a problem I don’t recall last year.
Sweet Boxwood
Diane Witch Hazel
Hellebore, variety unknown
To keep the Hellebores company, I took a trip to a favorite garden center to pick up some primroses. Those perfect little flowers never fail to lift my spirits and make me all a-tizzy for Spring blooms of any kind. The yellow primroses transport me back to my childhood in Ireland when we used to make necklaces from the wild variety on the long way home from school, through the fields. An old abandoned limestone quarry was the absolute best place to find bunches of flowers nestled into the crevices, in the company of wild Creeping Phlox, and something we called “Pincushion Plant”. Just magic!
Anyway, the primroses are in the ground and the Spring flowering bulbs inches above the soil. It’s only a matter of days before the first crocus blooms! Yipee!
The flip side is there’s so much to do and little time to waste. The first major task of my gardening year is to remove the heavy blanket of pine needles and leaves which threaten to smother the smaller plants and trees in the garden. I’ve cleared two small beds as a warm-up. The rest of the garden awaits.
What’s your first task of the gardening season?