Time passes faster and faster every year, so I hate to wish it away. However, I can't help but think about spring when we have a beautiful sunny day like today and the birds are gathering on the patio. First the doves settle in, and then I look again and the finches have taken over. I'm enjoying it.

It'll be a month or two before gardening season kicks in around here, but there are still a few things we could or should be doing now.

Removing

One is pruning. This is the time to cut back butterfly bushes and rose of Sharon. Just don't prune buds off plants you want to bloom this spring (forsythias, lilacs, snowballs, etc.). I'm not a real rose gardener, but I know the experts always say to hold off on pruning them now because pruning will cause a growth spurt that can be damaged by frost.

Something I need to do soon is cut off last year's peonies so I don't accidentally cut off the tips of the new growth when it comes up. I still have lots of dead flowers and foliage from last year to clean up.

Preventing

I also need to sprinkle weed preventer. I found 18.75-pound tubs of Preen at Costco for $24.99 Sunday. In the past few years it has saved me many hours of weeding (and guilt for weeding not done). I sprinkle it wherever I don't want weeds to sprout; some of the most useful places are the cracks in the sidewalk and driveway. Remember it will also keep seeds you want to sprout from sprouting.

Planting

I hope to get my vegetables started earlier this year, and I'm already worried about getting the timing wrong again. I think I need to get some seeds started indoors ASAP, and I think I have a few more weeks before I put anything into the beds. I'll bet my friend Shirene has already planted her tomato seeds.

I saved a lot of (new) seeds from last year, so I'm going to try planting them. I've also thought about ordering some heirloom seeds. I checked out of Seeds of Change and was surprised to learn it's owned by the Mars candy people. I've decided to order a few things from Heirloom Seeds instead. I really like the idea of growing things from which I can save seeds year after year. I'm thinking about trying to grow grains like barley or quinoa, too, and I might have to go to Seeds of Change for those.

Of course I'm still growing flowers. Ever hopeful, I picked up a bag of freesia corms(?) Saturday, and they're out in the garage chilling. The one time I actually got freesias to bloom was the year I let the pot I'd planted them in sit under a bench on the front porch through the month of April before moving it out into the sun. My sisters in California torture me with tales of freesias that not only come back every year but bloom in winter and spread all over.

I thought I was being smart when I moved a rose of Sharon bush a few weeks ago, but then I learned it might not have been the best time because the soil is so cold this time of year. We'll see how it does. However, now is supposed to be the time to start planting bare-root plants. Good luck getting them from mail order catalogs now, though. It's been a few years since I've tried to do that, but when I did it they would always promise to send them at the right time for planting in our area and then wait until May.

Enjoying (soon?)

I'm still looking for flowers in my yard—it seems I should have something blooming by now, but I don't. I'm seeing lots of new foliage, so I expect to be surprised by something any day. Yeah, it's really starting to look like spring already.