My, but you do sound ambitious! Take it easy. Even though I work out, I know I'm not in the same shape I was in autumn. I planted my Christmas tree last week, and felt it the next day.

I have been putting plants that have not found homes yet into bigger pots for the growing season. I will finish that today. I might get my new 'Scarlet Curls' willow into the ground this weekend, too.

What kind of Christmas tree?

Scarlet Curls is a registered trademark (no quotation marks) used to sell the willow cultivar 'Scarcuzam'*. I've had one for years, cut it down to stumps each spring. It still grows perhaps several yards high each summer, except when I cut it late.

Like other willows planted for stem color there is no point in allowing established specimens to develop fully. Annual hard whacking also clears away any cankers or blight that may have developed (above the point of pruning).

Presumably a non-pruned 'Scarcuzam' could grow 75' tall on a good site, as 'Tortuosa' has done (1987) in CT.

*Scarlet Curls Zampini, the last after J. Zampini of Lake County nursery, Perry, OH

I don't trust the weather yet, still freezing overnight here. But I have cut back things like sedums and grasses and may even chop back the hardy fuchsias and buddleja 'lochinch'. Sow some pots of annuals like sweet peas, calendulas, and trailing nasturtiums. I'll give it a couple of weeks at least before dividing summer bloomers like phlox that need it.

Bboy,

We got a blue sequoia as a Christmas tree this year.

It is my intention to coppice the Scarlet Curls once it's had a chance to establish a root system. I want it for the winter color which is gorgeous.

I've grown tortuosa in the past. It's too brittle to make a satisfying tree in my opinion.

Yes, there's been light frost at night, but last frost here isn't until mid May, so Spring isn't defined by lack of frost.

Nope, early spring activity is already on!

Very little winter damage on the roses this year, really just one cane out of a dozen plants, and that with minimal protection (maple leaves stuffed around the bases) and after a week of nights in the low teens and down to 10 degrees in the December freeze.

Now I'm waiting to see if the dierama survived the winter. That won't show til much later.

I cut some branches of an old flowering quince to force inside, and it turns out to be a white flowered one. Will those branches root, after sitting in a vase for a couple of weeks?

Your quince may not be white outside. Color is influenced by the amount of light. More light means more color.

I am inspired by "the list!" Thanks hallerlake- I forced some current, forsythia and quince last month and both the current and quince bloomed white and I have been scratching my head about it!

It's been getting down into the high 20s at night and up into the low 50s during the day here. So I'm prepping veg raised beds, giving fish meal to the garlic, weeding, and watching out for flower buds. Here's the very beginning of a red-flowering currant:

You sould just as excited for this early spring as me! I'm a little further north in Sequim, and this is my 2nd year gardening. We recently moved into a new house with a HUGE yard, and have picked a great spot for my somewhat Potager garden.

How do you use your chicken manure? I have a pretty steady source for that stuff.. lol I collect it all on fine wood chips.. do you just compost it?

Happy Spring to you as well!! I'll be planting carrots and radishes tonight. (woo-hoo!)

Courtney

I'm making a list of my favorite Portland Area plant sales. I went to the Cedar Mill Garden Club and the Aloha Garden Club plant sales last year and plan to go to those again this year.

Also busy getting yard waste in bins to use later in the summer as compost.

Planted lettuce seeds a few days ago.

Similar to project sideways, I'm making lists and cleaning up. My lists are about what plants I want to get at the Clackamas Co. Master Gardner sale in mid-May and what things I should get earlier.

My cleaning up is finishing getting rid of all the landscape fabric the previous owners put down in the side yard and putting some temporary plants until I can figure that space out. Temporary plants consist of sowing wild flower packets and free plant exchanges so I won't mind digging them up in the future.

Project Sideways, I've never heard of those two sales, can you post details?

I found nothing new at the Clackamas Master Gardener sale, last couple of years, doubt I'll go this year, it is such a madhouse.

Hi buyorsell888:

Here are the websites for the two garden clubs. The Aloha one doesn't have the date up for the 2010 sale as of today. I like these because most of the plants are dug from members gardens, and the prices are reasonable (especially Aloha).

http://gardencentral.org/oregon/alohagardenclub/
http://thecedarmillgardenclub.org/

Hallerlake - yes, I was wondering about that. It's not my quince, it's an abandoned one in a wildlife area that used to be a farm. I don't recall it being white when I've been out there in previous years so I've been watching it this year. Hasn't opened yet.

Peacekneeds - I buy bags of composted chicken manure and spread it lightly around shrubs and perennials, or dig it in in veggie bed. When I had chickens, I filled their house with pine shavings, and composted the soiled bedding. I would also spread straw in their pen in wet weather to keep down the mud, and rake that up periodically to add to the compost bins. In dry weather I would give them alfalfa hay, they love it, and I would rake up the leftovers and compost that too. That compost was the best ever. When I divorced and moved, I dug out the compost and took it with me.

I got some rabbit manure last week from a woman on Craigslist, and I'm spreading that this year. Everything but the rose bed has been manured, and the peas are in.

It felt so good to spend an entire weekend doing nothing but gardening! can't do that this weekend - it's a razor clam dig.

Does anyone know how to get rid of those annoying links the Forum puts in your posts?? I just updated my version of Firefox and I lost whatever was blocking those before.

I use Ad Block Plus and Flashblock with Firefox and the annoying link ads don't open up and annoy me.

I ordered all my seeds through Tatiana's Tomato Base and Baker's Creek

I planted all my greens in my new 8x4 raised bed on
Valentine's Day. Everything has sprouted! My pepper cress was first to come up, then pak choy followed by tatsoi, 3 different lettuce types, kale and mustard.

My raised bed for tomatoes and peppers is ready to go since I fed it all my compost.

Today I dug out all the weeds from my perennial bed since the soil is soaked from all this rain.

I should be eating salad greens from my garden in April!

Cheers!

I was happily outside all afternoon. The vegetable bed is ready--lettuce and spinach seeds at some point this week. I divided some daisies and added some candytuft. I also presuure washed a patio. It just felt good to be outside! Thanks for inspiring me!

I've been outside pulling weeds. There's a gazillion big leaf maples, mountain ash, and laburnums trying to reforest my garden. I am Deirdre Destroyer of Forests! (Hey, a woman has to do something to entertain herself while pulling seedlings hour after hour). The shotweed is starting to bloom already, too. Darn it. I pulled out the phormium the previous owners planted. It wasn't dead, but it looked like hell for the second year in a row. I'll confess phormiums don't really do anything for me anyway.