Love the round patio! Did you make it yourself?
What I like to do in winter - is to go thru the pictures of my spring and summer garden. It lifts my spirits and gives me ideas on what and how to plant differently this spring.
Garden and Patio show begins tomorrow in Cobb Galleria Center. It helps me to get thru the grey winter times.

Just hang in there another couple of weeks and it'll be spring again.

Nice photo!
I have phlox, iris and hyacinths blooming away, so spring doesn't seem so far off in my neck 'o the woods! It sure was gloomy, but today is nice but brisk. A good day to do heavy work. I've been turning over new garden bed areas and beginning to do some work on the new "hell strip" area that keeps getting flooded when the sewer here backs up or gets clogged (which is every time it rains). Only thing that'll grow there is weeds so I've decided bricks or pavers is the way to go!
Been ammending the soil in many beds and sowing lots of early season annuals.

GGG

ggg when you amend at this time of the year do you just top dress around your plants or do you work it into the soil?

Oh, vroomp. Can I come sit on your patio too? It's beautiful.

ggg, have you thought about a rain garden? It might be perfect for your hell strip.

I've finally started my winter sowing - milk jugs on the deck. It keeps reminding me that spring will get here soon enough.

Kathy, I've had to do some major bed renovations, so I'm digging out plants and then turning in plenty of composted leaf mold. I ignored several parts of the garden for a few years in a row, and now I'm sorry for that! I top dress other areas that are OK but could use all the love they can get.

Sugarhill, I can't plant a rain garden. It would get massacred in that area...what I need to do is dig the soil out, add a bunch of gravel, then sand and then some pavers. Nothing perculates down anymore, and water can sit for many days on end. When gardening in a hell strip, you are also limited in plant height and often type of plant. I don't want to have to go get a permit and a waiver for my planted spaces.
This city can do some crazy things.

GGG

Ugh.....winter is right. But then again, we also have Ugh.....summer when it's 102 degrees with 95% humidity. :-)

The temperatures aren't that difficult to tolerate, but the wind and extremely low humidity (dew point) sends me indoors after only a short time outside.

Lots of blooms in the winter garden to enjoy. Camellias, Crocus, Quince, Helleborus, Cyclamen, Daphne odora, Phlox subulata, Edgeworthia, a few Jonquils and very early blooms on Magnolia stellata and M. x loebneri.

The Hydrangea macrophylla's must think it's spring, as some are already sporting young leaves. Two of the Japanese specie Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema ringens & A. undulatifolia are already up and A. ringens is blooming. Another Aroid, Typhonium (Sauromatum) venosum is in full leaf already. All of these are in for a rude shock if the temperatures fall into the teens before spring officially arrives!
Rb

well I'm glad for the cold, because I felt as if I was behind in all my 'spring' chores. I've still got tons of clean up to do. But my new chipper will come in very handy.

Ditto on the patio, I love it, did you do it yourself, was it difficult?

re hydrangeas, my too started sprouting. Now with the cold, I noticed that the new growth has turned black. I hope that isn't going to ruin them for this year.....

This was probably the easiest patio I have done. The border is that metal edging form Home Depot and the pavers were all left overs from jobs that were returned to P.O.P.S. which I was able to get at a substantial discount. Total cost was maybe $150.00 and I did it in one day with one helper. Sorry I didn't respond earlier but, I was out of town this weekend.