Well, Lilac is blooming, Forsythia is fading. Hydrangea and other late shrubs are showing new leaves. Late narcissus are finishing, garlic and others are budding. Strawberries are flowering. Peas are about to reach the trellis, mesculin is about 2" tall but spinach is barely an inch. I managed to save one tulip from the deer. Lilies are now growing after having been cropped to the ground before I got them sprayed. I'm way too overextended to have transplanted or added to the garden. I'm just glad I got most of the beds cleaned out.

candyinpok - what type of strawberries are you growing and when did you plant them? Strawberries are one of this year's experiments, I'm trying Ozark. They're everbearing so I don't know how that effects their vigor.

Bloodroot finished flowering early because of last week's heat. Lungwort is going great guns. Trillium are bloomng. Daffodils on the east are blooming. Narcissus, bleeding hearts, violets and periwinkle are blooming. Jack-in-the-pulpit are pushing up, as is squirrel corn and Dutchman's breeches. We planted 9 new fruit trees, bringing our total to 27. Planted boysenberries, although it may be borderline hardy in our zone 5 garden. Also added goumi, aronia, and two more schisandra. Moved 10 blueberries. Asparagus are pushing up. Purple Royalty raspberries and Caroline red raspberries are leafing out, as are the currants, gooseberries, tayberries, buffaloberries and sloes. I've got 300 herbs, so let's see what is pushing up: agrimony, astragalus, culver's root, French tarragon, thymes are greening, sages, maral root, pulsatilla already bloomed, lovage, absinthe wormwood, catnip, lemon catnip, angelicas, arnica, St. John's, elecampane, etc. Planted fingerling potatoes. leeks, broccoli, cauli and brussels sprouts, which I started from seed, are planted out. Transplanted lemon balm (citronella and lemonella varieties which were started from seed). More things to do today and tomorrow (and the next and the next)!

bklyn2pok I don't know what variety of strawberry plant I have in the strawberry bed. They've been in there for several years and I didn't manage to keep a record of them I guess. The ever bearing variety I have is called Fragaria which is just a woodland strawberry variety. It has doubled itself and now sent off a baby plant this year so it's very happy. I love the way it looks in the garden with its perky little white flowers and the tiny red fruits are fun to munch as I weed. I bought this year Sequoia and Quinalt ever bearing plants because that's all the garden centers have. I really wanted June bearing. It's funny, because the years I put in the June bearing I was looking for ever bearing and couldn't find them, now that's all they have and I want the others. I'm out of sync.

Hellebores, narcissus, redbuds, forsythia, cherry and apple are blooming; the lilacs are getting ready to flower; something munched on my pulmonaria so they got set back a little bit.

I'm hoping that the plundering deer herd find new territory to strip.

Artemisias leafing out extravagantly. Tarragon in foot-tall clumps. Thymes and sorrel starting to leaf out. Most lavenders survived the winter and are coming back. Strawberries in flower  I think a few of them are wild. Blackberries, red and black raspberries, gooseberries are leafing out  some gooseberry limbs are gone to winter damage by voles. Two-year-old apple sapling is now a few feet tall and leafy. Hardneck garlic getting pretty thick and tall. Rhubarb's up in nice leafy clumps. Forget-me-nots, started indoors from seed two years ago, are the star of the show; they are in glorious bloom.

I've set out greens, carrots, and beets, and seeded more  though the non-toxic marker I used to keep track of what's where completely washed off! In my imagination, if the markers are blank, then the seeds won't sprout either, but I guess that's illogical. Put out rosemary and sweet marjoram in the herb garden but waiting on basil.

This weekend, setting out celery, more greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale), more marigolds, dill .... Taking a chance and putting in tomatoes, hoping the weather will favor an early start. Waiting a week or two for lima beans, cukes, and maybe a few melons.

I have some spinach and snap peas going. Tomatoes (big boy and cherrys) and bell peppers started in the house. I have to start Basil next, tomorrow probably.

The pole beans are coming up, probably started the limas too early but I'll give them another week before trying more seeds.
Planted cuke, beet and carrot seeds, will look for signs of life in a week or two.
Deer ate one hosta and one lily over the weekend, they eat this same lily every year, I'm starting to expect it.

My peas are on the trellis now. The mesculin mix is harvestable and the spinach is coming. Planted a second planting of both this weekend. Volunteer Cilantro is sprouting and the Kale is harvestable. Silly me also planted a few tomato plants that were getting too big and the cucumber seedlings. Planted carrot seeds but not the beets cause I couldn't find them. They turned up under the computer Sunday so they'll go in this weekend.

Deer eat my lilies every year so now they're sprayed regularly with liquid fence.

I saw two lima bean sprouts yesterday, the rest can't be too far behind. I set about 2 dozen of my tomato plants out on the backporch yesterday to experience sunlight and the great outdoors, so far so good. The porch is roofed and the tom's were started as seeds in a very cool basement so they were still happy this morning. It's supposed to be 34 degrees tonight so they're coming back in the house this evening. The mesculin mix will be big enough to thin next weekend, already harvesting leaves from the volunteers. Planted purple sage yesterday, couldn't resist the color. Also bought eggplants for the container garden, I think I'll wait a week before setting them out.

Candyinpok,
How are your tomatoes doing? Did they survive the cold night?

Rain and slugs.

Tomatoes are flowering, pepper plants are growing, basil plants are about to float away, lilies are blooming, bee balm starting to bloom, scattered coneflower and black-eyed susan blooms around various places, astilbe blooming, pole beans flowering and I'm sure mosquitos hatching.

I know rain is the best water source for my garden but sun is good too, I miss the sun.

How is everyone coping with this weather?