Ladybugs have been out all winter, it seems. There was one in my kitchen just yesterday. The kids at school are finding them daily.

We have henbit everywhere too. The yarrow is interesting to me. It never really dies in the winter. They little ferny leaves stay low to the ground and then shoot up and bloom when it gets warmer. Love yarrow. It's my favorite wildflower.

I noticed the same about the yarrow. All of mine survived. I had more irises die this year than anything else. Kind of weird. I noticed even some of my salvias still have very green leaves on them. Forsynthia is budded up already.

I do see ladybugs out most days, and then a lot of them go back into the greenhouse before I close the doors and vents in late afternoon. Some who were too late to get into the greenhouse then follow us to the house and are waiting at the back door. They come into the mudroom and I let them stay there. The mudroom keeps them from coming into the house, and I usually have at least one containerized plant in the mudroom which gives them something to climb around on while they are in there. The next day I open the mudroom door for a few minutes once it is kinda warm and the ladybugs head back outdoors.

The yarrow has stayed green all winter, and so have lots of other things, including verbena bonariensis, flat-leaf parsley, dianthus, some of the catnip, Laura Bush petunias, the rosemary, perennial onions, and the yarrow.

Some of my irises are up but some aren't. Some may have rotted in cold, wet soil. We had a little over 200% of our average annual rainfall in 2015, so I expect some perennials and bulbs may not have survived in our clay soil. The ornamental onions are up, but so far the hyacinths and daffodils are not. The comfrey stayed mostly green, but froze back in one cold spell in December and then promptly greened right back up again.

Today there are bees absolutely everywhere---the most I've seen in one day in a long time. They are loving today's pretty, sunny weather. Some of the fruit trees do have swelling buds, and I hope we get cold again in a few days before they get carried away and bloom too early.

These pretty winter days are such a glorious change from the cold, but I don't let myself get carried away and think that Spring is here. I know Winter is not done with us yet, but I'm going to enjoy the pretty, warm days we're getting for as long as they last.

The firethorn bush opened up today. I had been watching the blooms swell for over a week. And in Tahlequah today, I saw 2 honeybees working a large tub of pansies on the south side of a store. The henbit on the south side of the greenhouse has been blooming for a couple weeks. And I saw dandelions a couple weeks ago.

I saw henbit blooming just outside the garden fence last evening near sunset, so that will make all the bees and butterflies happy. Some years the henbit blooms as early as December, but it didn't this year. With highs in the 70s the next few days, I imagine more wildflowers will be blooming soon.

My henbit is blooming also and several perennial flowers are several inches tall.

Do you guys have any uses for henbit or chick weed?

I know of no good uses for chickweed in my garden although my chickens sometimes pick at it and eat it. I will clarify that some people eat both chickweed and henbit but I am not one of them. I just cannot get into eating weeds....and people who are allergic to some flowers need to be cautious when eating flowering weeds because you may be allergic to the leaves and stems and not just the pollen. You can make a tea from henbit and can cook/eat henbit or chickweed like spinach, or add them to soups or salads if you are feeling adventurous.

Henbit is a royal PITA as it comes up everywhere in the garden, but the swallowtails and other butterflies are all over it from the first day it blooms and they need something in bloom at this time of the year, so I leave henbit along the edges of the garden (and anywhere it blooms in the yards or the pastures) for them. Often, when the henbit is in bloom in February and March, we will have dozens of butterflies all over it all day long, so it tides them over the late winter/early spring days before much else is blooming. I was yanking out chickweed popping up in my mulched garden beds yesterday. I try to get it out of there before it flowers and goes to seed, but I must not be very successful because there's billions of new plants every year. Of course, we are in the country, so more seed just blows in and washes in. At least the henbit feeds the small beneficial insects at a time of the year when there's not much else for them. I saw ladybugs crawling around the henbit yesterday too.

Our chickens and ducks love henbit.