Rain rain go away!

Hello gardening friends! From the lakes and puddles of Maple Valley - don't you just wish the rain would go away long enough to be able to plant some seeds? It's just too wet to do that yet outdoors. I did plant some "Jiffy" pots with some sweetpeas, red peppers, basil, pink babies breath. Also a couple big half barrels outside with some radishes, carrots and spinach - these were iffy at best though because the dirt was still a little wet, but I added some potting soil that helped it be a little more dry when I mixed it in.
I am hoping that those of you who told me you had trouble adding photos will find a way to do that, we would all love to see more photos. I hope to add some spring pix soon. I do have daffodils and crocus popping up in my yard despite the cold.

My first spring notification

Here is my beautiful helebore - it always surprises me because of it's early beauty!! Because of the cold and snow and really cold temps due at night (although it got this far without my help), I moved it to the front porch from the north side of the house - it's in a big pot because I wanted to bring it with me from the old house.

Here is another small being waiting for spring:

This picture was taken yesterday before the big snowfall.                  

Garden Consultation

Peaceful Gardeners bloggers - it has come to our attention that maybe perhaps we should have a real live meeting before spring. At least two of us would like to get as many of us together as possible to talk about spring, that wonderful gift of warmer weather for planning and planting and taking care of the garden. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Flower Show

Is anyone interested in attending the Northwest Flower and Garden Show at the Seattle Convention Center? It is Wed-Sun, Feb 23-27 this year. If we buy tickets before the show, it is $16 each. Day of it goes up to $20. There is a group discount for 20 or more at $15 per person. Check it out, and the seminars, at http://www.gardenshow.com/. I usually take a day off work and spend the whole day. Right now I'm leaning towards Wednesday, but I need to take a closer look at the seminars before I decide for sure.

Welcome new blog follower! Marie

Welcome to our new blog follower Marie. Feel free to just read or post whatever you'd like to this blog. It was originally started when some of us at church wanted to discuss garden successes and problems, get help when possible and share photos of projects and our gardens. Here is another of my odd garden photos - I call it green eggs and ham. All the green in these scrambled eggs are herbs and veggies (spinach, basil, thyme, greek oregano, and green onions) from the garden and it was a very yummy breakfast!!!  

Church garden

Here is a picture of Carrie revitalizing the small garden bed by the front door of church. She did a really good job adding the purple and yellow pansies and planting the two shrubs I brought. Hope they bloom, they are star jasmine and african lily. The picture was taken Oct 23rd.

Summer dreamin'

So, here are some more photos from summer I wanted to share - the giant rutabaga that ended up in a nice stew (they cook like potatoes when you peel and cube them up); the three varieties of beets planted - chiogga (the ringed ones), Bull's Blood (the really dark ones), and yellow (I think the white one is a chiogga that didn't get it's rings right); and the Easter Lily from this years display at church - blooming again in October, their regular blooming time.