Crocuses are out! ??
— ???????? hoopy frood ??? ?????? (@huwupy.kawaii.social) February 4, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Yes, it’s snowing again here north of Boston, so I needed this reminder!
Carefully preparing my garden for spring by raking every surface, pulling up anything that looks at me funny, and annihilating the mulch around every conifer
— ???????? hoopy frood ??? ?????? (@huwupy.kawaii.social) February 7, 2026 at 2:09 PM
I was thinking of pruning the sweet woodruff but it looks so naked after the raking and anyway I don’t call my style “English jungle” for nothing
— ???????? hoopy frood ??? ?????? (@huwupy.kawaii.social) February 7, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Related: Many thanks to everyone who gave me advice last week… I’ve got a bunch of new bookmarks to peruse between making wish lists from sites like White Flower Farm and Select Seeds. (On the other hand, after some renovation timeline setbacks, we just renewed the lease on this apartment until Labor Day, *sigh*. )
What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / prospects), this week?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
MagdaInBlack
Is snowing in Chi-nw suburbs, but allegedly will be 42 Tuesday.
I could use some crocus.
pluky
Garden related I think. Wondering if the woman who landscaped, and now maintains, my yard has delivered her first child yet. I commented to her how convenient it was, upon being told she was pregnant, that delivery would happen in the Winter off season. Her reply, “That wasn’t an accident.”
p.a
Best crop of snowcrete I’ve had in years!
lowtechcyclist
Oh, the sun is shining and the grass is green,
under the three feet of snow, I mean
this is a day when it’s hard to wear a frown
First thing that popped into my head. :-)
lowtechcyclist
@p.a:
Same here! Got a yardful of it.
Now if only there was a market for it…
AM in NC
Just put a flat of native perennial seeds in my fridge to cold stratify for a month, since I forgot to pot them up and leave them outside in the fall. Daffodil and iris sprouts are peeking through in my yard here in the Piedmont of NC. Looks like they made it through the ice and snow over the past few weeks!
And, unlike hoopy frood in the Bluesy post above, I leave all of my mulch and leaves until well into spring to support all the things living in there over the winter.
stinger
“we just renewed the lease on this apartment until Labor Day”
Aw, nuts. Memorial Day would have been bad enough. Heck, Easter, whenever that is. But I’m sure you’ll love it when you do get to move in!
CCL
AL: Will you have access to your “new” house’s yard while the house itself is being worked on? Once the weather cooperates, you might be able to get a head start on some planting and enjoy your yard even if you can’t move in.
0. Degrees and windy this morning. I am not happy.
satby
@MagdaInBlack: yeah, a bit of snow here too, but I’m heading into the south suburbs for a baby shower in a couple hours and am looking forward to the slightly warmer temperatures 😂
satby
My yard likewise is still buried under the remnants of the original foot of snow we got more than two weeks ago augmented by the near constant daily additions since to counter what slight melt occured on the one day it went above 32° and the maybe 4 days with sun that were still below freezing. Every day feels like that movie Groundhog Day.
sab
Our across tje street neighbors had a kitchen fire in April and they are still not back in their house. The contractor works on it maybe one day per week.
catclub
yeah, no crocuses under my snow.
Trivia Man
@AM in NC: My library passed out native flowers and grasses in the fall, all need to stratify. I’ve never done that but i did a little reading. Two methods, we’ll see what worked better.
Half i just strewed on the ground and pretended the seeds fell off a growing plant just like in the wild. I cleated fallen leaves mostly and scuffed the ground first to loosen it a little but didn’t “plant” them. It rained a tiny bit next day, which i hoped would help settle them into ground contact, then got below freezing a week later.
Second half i planted in flats and put in the garden shed. We had some very very gold stretches but i think also enough in the right zone to stratify them. We will see.
MazeDancer
Your calm acceptance of the reality of renovation – double everything, time, budget, problems – is most impressive, Anne Laurie.
May you be able to move and tend to all outdoor stuff at the new house, so you will be set up for a beautiful 2027.
Hudson Valley is still frozen tundra.
Minus 6 last night. Went through a quarter of a tank of heating oil in 5 days.
But the sun is out, so only 2 sweaters indoors, today.Yay!
(Will not complain when it’s too hot this Summer, will not complain when it’s too hot this Summer, will not complain…)
Gvg
I have most of my current seed started. That is the kind that need cold. Some is direct sown, thrown on the bare ground, some in flats that I put outside under protective wire cages to keep critters from digging up or knocking over, and some is in baggies in the fridge. This has taken me weeks to get done because other things also needed doing and we had some very cold weather. Last week it was below freezing every night which is unusual in Florida. This is a very late start. It should have been done months ago. In just a few weeks it will be time to start the warmer spring seeds.
I need to go to my aunts and help her weed. I usually do it in January but I was sick and then had plumbing emergencies.
planning to do some more seed orders too.
StringOnAStick
It’s the mildest winter here in central Oregon in apparently decades, possibly longer. We haven’t had snow on the ground for months, and the local smaller ski area is closing until it snows again, the bigger (and higher elevation) ski area reports it rained all night and saturated the snowpack, then it snowed an inch. The fires this summer will be epic.
Dan B
@StringOnAStick: Very mild in Seattle and only 1/3 of normal snowpack in the Cascades, our water source. Daffodil (singular so far) plus Flowering Cherries, Crocus, Hellebores, Daphne odora, and more plants that usually bloom in mid March. But we’ve finally got rain and damp. Yesterday was steadily increasing rain for hours abd today was fog that felt like being underwater – no airplanes. Our kitty went out yesterday but only under the eaves. Schmart guy!