I am  lucky enough to have a very good friend who loves gardening as much as, if not more than me.  I love visiting her and seeing what her garden is doing throughout the year.  Better still, she shared a bunch of plants with me last year.  I think she felt badly for my naked garden!  She gave me the hellebore in the picture above. It bloomed in early February, when everything else was looking very much dead, or at least in sleep/winter/mode.  I’m taking notes from her, to plan my garden so it will have something colorful throughout the entire year; either through flowers, or bushes, or trees.

From my kitchen, I can see these planters of daffodils.  Just a few containers with greens coming up is all it takes to brighten my day!

This past weekend I worked on clearing out this little garden (weeds grow so easily, and really make themselves at home just about anywhere!).  We put down some mulch to hopefully keep the weeds in check.  In front I have a row of daffodils almost ready to bloom.  In front of the daffodils I have Dutch Iris, given to me by another garden loving friend!  These will bloom after the daffodils have died.   The daffodil greens have to be left until they are completely and totally dead (that’s right, really really dead!), as this helps with the bulb life in subsequent years.  So it is nice to have something to (hopefully) detract from the dying greens.