I started plugging away in the garden today. After I took my daughter (5) to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, we stopped at the nursery for a few plants. It was a brisk 59 here and mostly sunny, so a good day to get some work done.

I pulled a few tiny weeds (my elms sprout by the millions, it seems, but they are easy to pull out when they’re less than an inch tall), and I pruned a few small lantanas.

I’m so excited — the daffodils officially joined the garden today!

Not just one, or two, but several of them popped open. I love them.

Daffodils — bobbing their bright yellow bonnets in the breeze. Beckoning us out into the garden to join them in the Spring sunshine.

Today, I planted:

  • 3 Malicoides Mix Primula
  • 9 Sorbet Babyfae Ruby and Gold Viola
  • 6 White Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
  • 3 Grace Ward Lithodora
  • And 1 Cyclamen persicum that I bought for my daughter




(Doesn’t this Grace Ward Lithodora look like prostrate rosemary? I just love finding blues for the garden since they are so much less common than many other colors.)

This last photo is my new gardening best friend! I bought it last week – you can’t really tell the scale from the photo, but it’s a shorter and smaller shovel. Because I have tendonitis in my elbows, using the hand trowel is about the worst thing I can do. (ha! Like I’m gonna stop THAT!)But, since most of what I buy are one gallon plants anyway, I can use this smaller shovel to dig the right sized hole and use my foot for strength instead of my arm. Whoo hoo. And I’m pleased to report that it worked great today on everything but the 6-pack of Alyssum.

Happy Gardening!