I'm the worst at marking what I plant where. I always figure I'll remember and I never learn. About 5 years ago I found a packet of Crocus sieberi on deep discount, just dried up little corms. These are a species crocus native to Crete and although they aren't show stopping, they are different from the "regular" species crocus and from the big later flowering crocus. They are a soft violet color with white at the base of each flower's cup and a bright yellow center. The yellow is really obvious when you look at the outside of the flower. I originally planted this handful of corms in the Driveway Border and they did come up and eventually flower but they were nearly invisible when everything else started to come up. So I moved them. Somewhere. But where? 
I've been looking for them for the past couple of years and today, hallelujah, I found them. They are up and blooming beautifully in the Rock Garden, under the weeping mulberry. And...even better...there are now two tidy clumps of them, so they probably bloomed last year and I overlooked them, thinking they were the regular species crocus. My hens must have scratched out a few of the corms and they re-rooted a bit further down the slope. I'm tickled.
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It looks like it's going to be a good year for my miniature daffodils too. I'm seeing their bright little trumpets all over the place. I'm not positive of the variety because I got them originally as pass-alongs from a florist shop after they had faded and were being tossed out. But whatever they are, they are fussy. They multiply like crazy and as soon as they form a clump they "go blind" or stop blooming. I'm constantly having to lift and divide them, which isn't terrible but it is a bit of a bother considering how long regular daffs can go without much effort.
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I know this sounds like next to nothing, but I made more progress on the Folly Wall today than I have in a long while because I got 20 bricks mortared into place along the south side of the "door jamb" between the two raised beds. I'm hoping to get another 20 or so done tomorrow, then finish up the south door jamb on Friday. Since this is a tall skinny stack of bricks (only two bricks wide), I don't want to go too high all at once because I am not sure if wet mortar will hold that well that high. So I figure do it in stages, let the mortar set, and then I don't run the risk of the whole thing toppling over!
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Started my celery seeds today. I also went ahead and moved the brassicas, hardy hibiscus, and shasta daisy seedlings into the greenhouse. Our overnites aren't supposed to go to freezing for the next week at least, so I think they'll do well. I covered the flats with fleece for night, just to be safe. With the GH re-covered and weathertight, the temperature inside was about 8 degrees warmer than outside, despite it being a rainy, heavily overcast day.
Sunday was one of those days when I suddenly made a big step forward with the Folly Wall project. That is so typical around here. I'll work like mad on something, then get called away and the project can linger for months with nothing being done. Then another good day and lots done. Yesterday I got the little footer trench filled with gravel, tamped level. Set the first course of concrete blocks (just 6) and leveled them; this is the beginning of one wall of the big raised bed at the top. Once that first course was done, I was able to resume work on the little "patio" of crazy paving that will run right up to the bottom of that raised bed. That was made more difficult by the fact that everything was trampled mud. But I got the weeds dug out, leveled, then cut and placed old plastic feed bags as weed block. Hauled buckets of fine grit up to cover them.
I found I did not have nearly enough of the "crazy paving" (broken concrete paving I salvaged from some guy's walkway) to finish that area. Hmm.... I dug out an old rectangular wooden form we used years ago to make the concrete pads under the deck steps. I didn't want to suddenly go from irregular paving (which, I might say looks pretty darn good!) to big slabs of rectangular concrete so I stuck bits of wood inside the frame to divide it up into random "chunks." Mixed and poured concrete and Bob's your uncle. Five more odd shaped pieces for the paving. It may look a bit different, but after some weathering in place should be fine. I'll have to make more today, but I am considering a line of square pavers right up against the wall of this new raised bed, just to make things a bit easier.
Fired with enthusiasm, I drove down to Lowe's in Maryland and bought an 80-pound bag of mortar so that I can begin to mortar all this paving into place today. Our temps are supposed to get to 65 so that should be fine. (I wish they sold mortar in smaller bags...I can't begin to lift 80 pounds and it's so difficult to divide up a big bag like that.) I have to admit it: I love messing about with masonry.
After all that heavy lifting, carrying, and hauling, I thank God and modern science for naproxen. By evening all I wanted to do was lay on the couch with a pillow under my knees 
Today I want to prick out and pot on my Shasta daisy seedlings. They are growing very well and it's time for them to get their own individual pots. I have some more seeds I'd like to start, mostly hardy annual flowers. And all this means I have got to get into the greenhouse and do some shifting and sorting. It looks like (:cross_finger: ) our temps are staying fairly mild so I may consider moving the cabbages, broccoli, Shasta daisies, and hardy hibiscus seedlings into the greenhouse. At any rate, I need to get a table cleared and ready for them. If I get the time, I may try to dig out a heavy duty exterior extension cord and see if it's long enough to run from our outside outlet to the greenhouse. I'd feel a lot better if i could get a little heat out there to keep my green babies warm at night.
Very foggy morning here (Sunday). I'm waiting for the fog to lift so I can get out and garden. We've had a week of quite cold temperatures followed by two days of rain so I haven't been able to get much done outside. Today I'm eager to get some work done in the Folly Wall garden area. If the temperatures get up above 50F today, I may even do a little work with mortar or concrete. For some reason, my enthusiasm for that area has really fired again.
I see that a lot of my daylilies are above ground now, the daffodils are all up and the earliest ones are blooming. So cheerful! The newly re-covered greenhouse held up excellently to battering winds and rain, no tears, no leaks.
It's odd how for months past I've been moving steadily along with the garden chores, tidying the borders, fixing the greenhouse, pruning a bit here and there, getting a lot of seeds started... But now, suddenly everything revs up and I feel this pressure to get things done. And there's so much to do! I have to tell myself not to panic but to rather just let nature and weather set the pace.
I'm still working nearly full-time so I've had to train myself to accept the fact that a lot of things just don't get done or only get done in very slow motion (the Folly Wall being a prime example: I've been pecking away at that project for years). But this year I'm hoping to cut back a bit more on my editing work and devote more time and energy to house and garden. The past two or three years have been good ones for my garden, with a lot of expansion and fine-tuning going on. This year I want to build on that and finish up some areas that are still very rough, namely the Asian Garden, the Fairy Glen, the Folly Garden, and the new Wildflower Meadow up behind the hen run.
I better get moving. Those celery seeds aren't going to plant themselves missy.
We seem to be getting an early spring this year (although we are forecast to receive some wet snow tomorrow) so I'm trying to take advantage of the milder weather. This morning I got the two concrete bases out in the hen run, where the rotted posts came out. The first one, along the east side, popped out a lot easier than I expected. At first I thought "Oh lord, this is going to be terrible..." then realized that what was holding it in was a root from the nearby mulberry that shades the hen run. Once I cut that, the concrete lifted out pretty easily with the pry bar under it.
The second chunk, which held the post for the left side door jamb, was tougher.
It's funny how over just 30 years a place can sort of become an archeological site. As I dug around that second post, I could not figure out why it seemed that the concrete went so far out from the post. I kept digging and realized that sometime in the past I must have had previous post set in there, in a bit different position. The concrete base that I wanted to remove actually sat on top of that old concrete. Once I figured that out, I was able to pry the newer base out. Then I realized that, again, sometime in the foggy past, I had poured a concrete threshold for the door into the hen run. I do vaguely remember that. But, over the years, it's become so buried in compost/dirt I forgot it was there. I pried it out and I think I will re-set it once I get the new door jamb post in. It's a good idea, only I did not originally make it high enough to do what I think I intended: Hold the debris/compost from getting out of the hen run under the door. So I'll reset it higher and adjust the door accordingly. For now though, I just have two gaping holes where the new posts will go.
Halfway through this job we got a TREMENDOUS thunderstorm roll through and I thought that standing at the top of a hill with a five-foot heavy metal bar in my hand wasn't exactly prudent. 
A short deluge later, the rain stopped so I went out and finished up with the hen run. Then decided that, since I was up there, muddy to the eyeballs, and had my shovel with me, I would do a little work in the Folly Wall area.
I marked off the front of the next raised bed then dug a footer trench about a foot wide and only about 3-4 inches deep. I'm going to fill that with gravel or, more likely, that crushed glass I got from a friend. Then I'll set the first course of concrete blocks on that and we're on our way to constructing the third and last of the raised beds up there. This one will run perpendicular to the other two and form a sort of back wall to the little stone paved patio at the top of the Folly Wall area. It's growing like Topsy....I have an amorphous idea of what I want the overall garden area to look like, but the details are expanding as I see things that I like and want to incorporate.
Right now, the whole area just looks like a messy construction site, but I'm determined to really make some progress up there this spring. Need more stones!
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My species crocus are up and in full vigor, the snowdrops are still here but fading, and the winter aconites are booming along. The large common crocus are just now appearing; a small patch of purple ones bloomed this morning. First of the wild "graveyard" daffodils is open, in the little sheltered crescent bed near the house. I have GOT to get a bed with species crocus, snowdrops, and aconites all together...what a lovely display that will make!
So, I got the new plastic sheeting on the greenhouse and then I saw where along the south and west sides, the brick floor had really settled and sagged. Plus, a friend gave me a big old picnic table to go in the greenhouse. I decided to light two candles with one match: fix floor, bring in table. Hauled almost everything out of the greenhouse (a huge job because I use it for winter storage). Then pulled up bricks, hauled in dirt (10 5-gallon buckets from E's house), filled in the low spots, tamped level, hauled in fine gravel, etc etc. Reset bricks along south wall yesterday; finished the west wall today. THEN the fun started: getting that old picnic table which measure 33 inches wide through a door that measures 32 inches wide. It took an hour to wee-jee it in, a little this way, a little that way, move this thingy, move that thingy. I know I probly should have asked someone to help, but I love a challenge.
Now, the greenhouse is as "done" as it's going to be for now. I put everything back in except some pots and I'm not going to do anything more because over the course of the next few weeks I'll be in there moving stuff around and bringing things out for spring. No point in trying to organize everything perfectly only to dis-organize it later. But the floor sure does look better! I even grouted it with sand and fine gravel.
So, that's another big project done. Last week I got the paper mulberries out along the South Border, this week the greenhouse. Next on the agenda is the hen run. I got the broken posts out, and I borrowed E's big pry bar so next time the weather is willing, I'll get up there and try to get the old concrete out.
Oh, forgot. I used the rotted posts to form a sort of "pedestal" in the woodland Glade area. It's just four posts stacked up into an open rectangle about 4 x 2 feet and 18 inches high that I will fill with dirt, rocks, etc. to make a platform for my wire frame deer. I have had this little wire frame deer for YEARS and I finally decided what to do with him. He's only about 3 feet tall at the highest point of his antlers so that's why the pedestal thingy. After I get that filled and he's sitting on solid ground, I'm going to train miniature ivy over him to make him into a topiary. I think he'll look really nice back there in the Glade. I'm going to first paint him black (he's white), and then I think I'll try stuffing him with coir or something to give the ivy better rooting. It's one of those little projects that I'll do when I have time.
