Mainly I picked up sticks from the recent high winds. However, I did notice a few trilliums peeking up as well as some columbines. The hellebores are beginning to bloom, late for me this year, and the daffodils are up but not open yet. I am anxious to see what I lost this season, but then, gardeners are always anxious for spring!

I had plans of potting some things up for swaps but never got that far.
Picked up sticks, cut some stalks from last years sedum, bee balm, and cannas. Planted two Chamaecyparis that I've had in pots for the last year. Also put in a small pre-formed pond liner and filled it with sand and peat for some Pitcher plants.

Well it's now Monday morning and I'm at work sitting at my desk but I can tell you that every muscle in my body aches from all the lifting and digging and hauling that went on in my yard this weekend. I'm also a little sun burned and have a few fire ant stings.. so yeah, I was outside all day, both days. But I did get a lot done - yay!

I recently moved and ended up digging all my precious bushes and shrubs from the old house in the middle of the worst weather. To shelter them I sunk some in the ground and piled the rest into rows where they laying flat on the ground with their roots covered in wood chips. Then I layed a massive blue plastic tarp over the whole pile. I religiously watered everything every day up until this weekend. It took three people all day Sunday to pot everything up. Lucky me stumbled upon these cheap bucket thingys at Lowes that cost less than $5 and were big enough to work as pots for the larger plants.

I'm pooped.

John, did the buyers of your previous home move in yet?

Since this is a conversation subforum and it appears that all has been said as to the subject I will hijack it and change the subject to me me me and my house buying and selling yarn(s).

Dottie - they came, they saw, they bought. They needed to move in quickly so everything happened very fast. I plan to go over and walk them through the spring bloomers next month and probably offer them a Musa basjoo banana plant since they loved the big one I had in the yard.

It was the oddest thing - I spent sooooo much time fixing up all the problems with that old house and they barely noticed. I had to physically drag them inside and show them the place. All they wanted to talk about was the yard, not that the yard was that spectacular (it was winter after all) - I think it was the amount of space and the potential for a large garden. I told them that in order to really grow food crops they will need to cut down a bajillion trees, I don't think they heard me. I had previously had many trees removed and those that remained had just started reaching out into the open space, blocking sun to the garden down below. It is one of the things I love about the new place, an acre and a half of wide open relatively flat grass lawn that pretty much faces south. Across the driveway is acres and acres of woodlands that belong to the state and will most likely never be developed - so I still get my forest to walk around in but I don't own it.

So the new owners seem happy. The husband knows how to do everything and doesn't really need my help. He strikes me as one of those people that has been trapped in an apartment for a year reading up on country living and now he has finally moved into his little patch of dirt and he can't wait to put all that he has learned into action. They both come from small town/rural settings up north so they were never going to stay in downtown Raleigh anyway. I don't dare show them my new house for fear they will simply move into the basement and never leave.

Ooh, I don't recall your mentioning that 'new place' has a basement. No more storing over-wintering plants under the house/crawl space.

Next question..When do the chickens arrive???

I love having a full basement. It is kinda short ceiling-ed, you have to stoop in some parts to get under the duct work. You can store soooo much stuff down there and since it isn't a finished basement, I don't have to worry about keeping things neat and tidy. I do plan on storing the dormant bulbs and begonias down there next winter. My large pots of tender fruit trees (citrus, guavas etc) just keep on getting bigger and bigger so they will take up all the space in the makeshift hoophouse. Eventually I will build a real greenhouse on the old asphalt pad that used to be a 22 by 49 foot basketball court. It isn't the most picturesque location so I have to somehow fancy it up. But fixing up the house will dominate most of this year so real yard work and gardening will take a back seat until next spring, hopefully by then I will have the $$$ to invest in the metal pipes for the greenhouse.

The chicken house that came with the house is in pretty poor shape. It does have a cement floor but even it needs work soooooo I think I will hold off getting little chickees until I can secure the area from predators. A lot of people are jumping on the home flock bandwagon so every time I see baby chicks my brain chips away at my long list of repair work in an effort to move "chickens" to the top of the list.

I am also toying with the idea of ducks - which I've had before, but way back I raised Muscovies and now I want Campbells (probably Khaki colored but you never know...). The low spot in the yard that used to house an above ground swimming pool has flooded making the perfect muddy pond for ducks.

First up for the yard is a windbreak of evergreen bushes. The open-ness of the place makes for some fierce winds across the porch, the back deck, the old windows that rattle... you get the idea.