I agree. This time last year I saw dwarf Iris blooming. My iris dont have any signs of blooms yet and they are all short and stubby.

Interesting notes. Because I know I'll never write it all down, I take tons of photos and videos of my yards/garden every year, at least once a week starting in February/March (mostly to document seedling growth) and continuing through early November most seasons. I find the trees and other perennials are definitely behind last year, but the grass seems to be a bit ahead.. at least ours does. I mowed and trimmed and tidied up quite a lot last weekend and see a significant difference in the appearance of almost everything within this week. It's pretty remarkable. I do believe I've lost my raspberries, though, which is strange. I actually generally don't mind a later leaf-out because it reduces the chances of a late hard freeze damaging tender blossoms and fruit. In fact, I almost prefer a later leaf-out.

The long term forecast is calling for a generally cooler and wetter summer which I am sort of looking forward to, but I also fear that may mean lots of severe weather. The latter half of the season is looking drier and warmer, which should bode well for fall gardens.

The long term forecasts also predicted a cooler, wetter spring. I'm no meteorologist, but it doesn't seem particularly cool or wet to me. Going off memory, it seems actually somewhat dry. The first part of March was cold but we've had overnight lows up in the 40's pretty regularly the past couple of weeks and only a handful of frosts so far this month. Only two significant snow storms in the past month-month and a half. Certainly not shaping up to be the cold, wet spring they were predicting, at least in my mind.

Here's the current NOAA/NWS Temp and Precip predictions for the next 12 months--click on individual maps for the up close and personal look!

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions//multi_season/13_seasonal_outlooks/color/churchill.php

Treebarb, Thanks for the info on the tree sale at O'Tooles. We have two that appear to be biting the dust so may look for replacements.

I don't know if my yard is behind other years but this is the most cleaned up we've gotten it before things started to explode in growth so that may be the case. We had a short rain burst a couple of nights ago and the asparagus burst from the ground. Some had come up earlier but got frozen and died.

The funny thing is that the soil seems to be warming up quickly in my beds.

I agree, Jerry. For as chilly as this winter has been, my soil has been quite pliable for a month or so. I have had little issue working my containers since mid-March. I've had frozen containers through April in the past and still had amazing gardens. It'll be interesting to see how this season pans out..

I'm thinking a vole has eaten a large portion of my aster bed. There is suspiciously little coming up in in. The local wildlife has been trying to catch him but so far no luck.

We've also seen a hawk and an owl trying to get him. Our dogs have also tried but he is still there since we keep seeing new tracks.

I was thinking last year I wish I had done something different with this bed so added some new stuff and moved alot of the asters to the back. Now I have a chance at a complete redo and I can't remember what I was wishing I had done! Hopefully some more shasta daisies or similar all summer long flowering plants will show up at the swap and we can refill it back in.

I just moved in the fall, and I moved many perennials, so it is interesting to see what survived the move. Delphiniums, penstamon, hyssop, and columbine (the deep purple variety) look great, also I must have inadvertently moved some California poppy and Larkspur seeds, as some of those are popping up. My indian blanket flowers seemed not to have survived.

I recently removed 4 rose bushes and almost 10 lilac bushes, the lilacs were tough! I had to hire someone to pull out 2 huge ones. In their place I planted some switchgrass (Northwind) and prairie bluestem, and I am waiting for some flowering yucca from High Country gardens.

I jumped the gun and planted some cedar planters already, with dill, lemon thyme, cilantro, and some clay planters with grasses and lavender.

On a negative note, my small square of lawn looks awful. I'm not sure what to do with it. I'd love to xeriscape it but I've run out of money for now! I really don't want to be a slave to watering.

Come to the spring swap. Lots of plants for free. You can nibble away at the lawn.

You can go to the Denver Botanical Gardens or Adams County Xeriscape Garden to get ideas.

" The Adams County Master Gardeners invite you to see their gardens and get inspired. See the beauty of low-water xeriscape gardens with abundant blooms and pollinators. Learn about how you can do this in your own yard! Visit them today at Riverdale Regional Park, 9755 Henderson Rd., Brighton "

Many of the plants will show up at the swap. If you have more to pull, bring those to the swap or set them on the curb with a free sign. I have recycled unwanted plants that way. You may be able to get someone to dig them out for free by offering them for free on Nextdoor if you were so inclined.

Heidi, short term you can smother the grass with cardboard, newspaper and tree mulch all of which can be found for free. Then when you're ready to start planting you'll have a blank canvas or maybe a mostly blank canvas with some bindweed.

Popmama wrote: Is it me or do some things seem late this year?

I keep an informal phenological journal, and most of my plants are about 2.5 weeks behind where they were in 2018. So are some of the birds and butterflies. But that's just par for the course in Colorado. The timing of blooms and migrations can vary considerably from year to year, as far as I can tell. That's why I don't plant out anything delicate until well after Mother's Day.

But yeah, the springs that start out later due to more cold/moisture seem to be followed by a marked increase in crazy, "it-came-out-of-nowhere" storms, especially once the atmosphere starts to warm up. Having lived in Fort Collins for 35+ years, I'd say that every month has its weather surprises, but May tends to be the month that sends me scurrying for cover the most!

So if you're new to the area, be sure to keep an eye on the sky -- and keep a bunch of buckets and baskets handy; because every few years this will happen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh7LfQGD23M

Thank you all for responding. And thank you Laura for keeping a journal! I really need to do that! I do recall that I had very little hail damage last year but a lot the year before. However, I know my Aunt in Aurora lost almost everything to hail last year. It can strike any time. The worst thing about hail is that it's hard to prepare and painful to try to go out and cover when it's happening. May is the month!

I had some comments on phenology a few years ago.

It seems the best way but I do rely on the Weather Service. Their guesses are so much better than mine. And, the calendar has to do with the sun and the Earth tilting towards it. Yes, that's important. However, I once had a retired military family nextdoor to my garden. There were 3 children still at home and the entire family was out in pouring rain on Memorial Day weekend putting in a garden. After that - it was fairly seriously neglected. Year after year, that garden was neglected and quite unproductive but -- Memorial Day!

One of the responses to my ideas on phenology and the seasonal changes was that natural response to what has happened not what will happen. Sure, that's right ... it just seems like the best we can do.

Last week, I saw an Oregon Grape in bloom in about the warmest location around, right against a brick building in the full sun. Yesterday, I saw another blooming Oregon Grape. This is my cue for planting pea seed. I know that they aren't blooming near the distant garden so I have some time to git-out-there and do some tilling!

Steve

We put some mouse traps out ($ store snap traps) and caught a vole right away. Then no nibbles on any of the 4 traps last night. Hard to believe there was only one.

Ooooh, I just remembered a really cool website! Lots and lots of shared phenological data. https://www.usanpn.org/news/spring 

Living in the age of connected citizen science is amazing.

One thing about keeping a garden journal: it doesn't have to be a daily or long-term commitment to be useful.

I set a notebook and pen on the nightstand through only a couple of growing seasons. Admittedly, I was already an experienced gardener but I'd done little to nothing to keep track of activities, plant varieties and production through the years. My purposes was to record those but there were only several notes through each week.

This information, I gathered together on a couple of pages over a winter and the result - I was better prepared for spring!

Some of my gardening is still limited and I have only a narrow base of experience that I follow as a deeply-worn path. Nearly all is based on memory and what I feel as opportunity but for a number of years, I was referring back to the written and organized history from just a few years of journaling.

Now having said that, I must admit that I rely on DW's memory of what was grown where in the immediate prior year. That guides rotation and commitment of space. It works! But, it only works because she remembers one year to next, I'm willing to let that drift from my mind during the off-season. Otherwise! It would be very important information to record in a journal.

Steve