Back months ago, I got a very good deal on two miniature roses in pots. They were on the deep discount rack at the supermarket, I think probably left-overs from Christmas. I can't remember exactly what the price was, but it was cheap and the roses looked healthy. One is a peach flowered variety; the other might be pink flowered. I've kept them in their original pots. At first, when we had very bitter weather into the teens at night, I kept them in the basement. Then, when it got a bit milder I moved them onto the south-facing deck and I've left them there ever since, letting them get acclimated to being outdoors (their labels said "Indoor/Outdoor", so they are winter hardy but greenhouse grown and forced). They've been doing very well, going nicely into dormancy but retaining their leaves. I decided I'd use them in the Pot Corral so today I wanted to transfer them to bigger pots. Surprise! They weren't TWO miniature roses. They were TEN miniature roses! When I popped them out of their pots, they divided up into five and five, all well-rooted and healthy. I potted one set up two in one big pot in the Pot Corral and three in another. The other one I divided up into five smaller pots and have them set down next to the greenhouse. If they all continue to do as well separately as they have been, I will be over the moon.
***
I'm trying to keep making progress. But things keep going off track. Yesterday, we were supposed to get rain in the afternoon, so I did not want to start working with concrete. I have got to get those posts in for the hen run, but I thought since we were getting rain, I'd wait and do that today. Instead, yesterday, I spent the morning getting a lot of routine things done and then spent an enjoyable half-hour "liberating" winter aconites from along the road in front of that abandoned old house. I thought this would be perfect: get the aconites back home, planted, and then the rain will water them in.
Well, the rain never came. So I got up this morning intending to do the hen run posts. But because I did not buy the concrete mix yesterday (can't haul that home in the truck in the rain!), I had to go to Lowe's today. But got off to late start because it was way too cold to start concrete early, then the stores/highways were crowded and what should have been a quick trip took two hours. Got home cranky and hungry and decided it was too late to start with the hen run. So did the Pot Corral instead, getting the pots topped off with good potting soil. In addition to the mini roses, I also planted two pots with tiger lily bulbs and then moved the "christmas tree" shaped rosemary and lavender into bigger pots as well. I got those on discount after christmas and they've done well on the deck. Hope they continue to thrive in their new bigger pots.
Then I had to haul water down into the Glade to water in the newly planted aconites. I brought home a lot of them! I decided that instead of planting some here, some there, as I've been doing for the past few years, I'd concentrate on getting a big swath of them established. The Glade in the Pine Gap is perfect and there is already a small patch established there. But I'm not stopping there; I've got another small patch doing well up in the Storybook Garden and next week I'm going back to "liberate" a bunch more to spread around in there. And if I feel really energetic, I'll go back and get more to increase the patch in the Asian Garden.
AND if I get the gumption (I love that word), I'm going to take a drive into Maryland and see if I can find that little back road where I got some lovely pale purple New England Asters a few years ago and I might "liberate" a few more clumps of those! I really should have a pirate flag flying from my pickup truck's antenna. Arr....
Gradually, I'm turning my attention from the Borders and ornamentals to the veg. I already have my first carrots and parsnips in from February. This week I got my peas in. On Tuesday I turned over one of the square beds (the one nearest the greenhouse). I'm going to plant my onions at one end, under a cage and with a fleece cover tightly in place. I also worked wood ashes into the soil. All to protect against the allium leaf miner. Before I plant the sets, I'm going to dunk them into the spinosad (organic pesticide) and then water them in with more of the same.
My cabbages, brassicas, cauliflower, and shasta daisies are in the greenhouse and doing good. I had to bring everything back into the house a few nights ago because the temps dipped to near freezing and we had snow. I never completely trust the weather forecasts for low temps because I'm in a cold spot and I decided not to take chances. One year I lost two entire flats of cabbages because I thought it would be ok to leave them in the greenhouse, well covered, when the overnite temps went to 28F. Well, it went down to more like 24F and they froze solid and did not recover.
Indoors, I've got a flat of tiny yarrow going, my celery is finally germinated, and fennel seeds are up and coming along. I'm trying again with the red cabbage. I originally planted 4-6 seeds and only 2 germinated. One plant has died. So I'm giving it another try. I suspect these are not fully viable seeds; maybe this is why they were on sale! I'm also trying again with the Pink Muhly grass, but I have doubts. After a week nothing at all. I tried these self-collected seeds last fall and got nowhere too. I also have a big pot of basil started (no head in the pot).
Out in the greenhouse, I've got a flat of Cleome and a flat of penstemon; instructions said they needed some cool temps to get them started so that's what they are getting. I've got liatrus and something else in the freezer for a month of stratification (chilling before planting). 
I want to get my marigolds, zinnias, and sunflowers started soon, but I'm holding off until the temps stabilize outside. I really don't want to have even more flats crowding up the kitchen. Once some of the stuff I've got growing is a bit bigger I can move them to the cooler office and bedrooms, but for now the babies need to be in the warmer kitchen.
***
Got the Virtual Koi Pond cleaned out (raked out leaves and debris) and my concrete virtual koi in place. The funny thing is that even though there is NO WATER in the virtual pond (hence, "virtual") I found myself balancing on the edge and trying not to step into it while I worked. 
I think I might sprinkle some more of that crushed glass over the surface of the gravel. It really looks nice and sparkles like water.
Got all the pots set up in the Pot Corral and most of them are partially filled with garden compost now. I'll top them off with good potting soil before I plant them. There's a lot of them! I've got to sit down and sketch up a plan for each pot. A nice exercise while having a cup of tea!
The northward migration is in full swing. I've been seeing Canada Geese streaming overhead every few days for the past week or so. Today, two enormous skeins went over, and then a smaller one. But the glory of the morning was to see the Snow Geese passing over. They have a sweeter, more musical cry than the harsh honks of the Canadians. I heard them long before I saw them, then waited, scanning the skies until I saw them. They fly higher than the Canadians too, way up into the reaches, looking like nothing so much as a thin silvery chain trailing across the heavens.
***
Yesterday I bought what I needed for my early veg garden. Four pounds each of Yukon Gold, Red Norland, and Eva seed potatoes. 'Eva' is a new to me variety; the nice man at the feed store said Eva produces more uniformly sized, medium spuds and they store better than Kennebec (which is what we all plant around here). I also bought a small packet of yellow Stuttgarter onion sets. I'll try again this year to get a crop; it's very disheartening to have to battle this new pest, the allium leaf miner, because up until about 6 years ago, onions were an easy and bountiful crop for me every summer. Now it's a cause for rejoicing if I get a handful of edible bulbs. Last year, I covered the little bed with fleece and sprayed/dusted the sets and emerging plants with Captain Jack's Dead Bug juice, which contains spinosad, an organic pesticide recommended for allium leaf miner. This seemed to work pretty well; I got a little lax about keeping the fleece tightly closed and i think some of mature flies got in to lay their eggs on the onion leaves. But at least I got a few good bulbs, which is a victory because otherwise I'd have got nothing. So this spring, I'm putting the sets in and immediately dusting them and covering them tightly. I'm also going to sprinkle the soil with wood ashes, which are supposed to be a deterrent.
***
I got a $5 gift card from Ace Hardware for my b.day and I blew it all on seeds! I bought fennel, penstemon, yarrow, poppies and I think something else, but forget. I am getting old.
***
This morning, possessed of a garden fury, I went ahead and actually PLANTED all those new seeds as well as a couple of things I've had sitting around. I've got trays under lights on heating pads and in the greenhouse. If everything actually germinates I'm going to be swimming in new plants.
***
Continuing progress on the Folly Wall. I set 20 more bricks on the south door jamb. Then, while that was setting up, I poured two more small pavers (in the basement; they'll cure better down there). After that, I tore down part of the south facing wall of the first raised bed, which I really just threw together a year ago and it looks like it. I got some secondhand concrete blocks a few weeks back and I used them to rebuild that section of the wall, discarding a lot of the stones that never should have been used in the first place. It looks much better and it's certainly a lot more stable now (part of it was sliding down against the weight of the soil in the bed).
This afternoon, I'm going to try to level out the soil in that raised bed and move it back against the newly re-set wall. Then, I'm going to turn my attention to the south east corner. That corner is built up of half-width concrete blocks to form a sort of half fallen down corner...the whole idea of the Folly Wall raised beds is that they look like the remnants of an old building that has collapsed, leaving uneven stone and brick walls, some filled with compost, some with water. That southeast corner has a square water feature tucked right up into it and that needs to be finished. I want to make the corner walls a little higher and then paint them some dark color (probly black so that tall water plants in the water feature will "pop" against the dark color).
Well, it's a very silky soft day out there today and the spouse needs to be taken for walk so I better move.
I'm the worst at marking what I plant where. I always figure I'll remember and I never learn. About 5 years ago I found a packet of Crocus sieberi on deep discount, just dried up little corms. These are a species crocus native to Crete and although they aren't show stopping, they are different from the "regular" species crocus and from the big later flowering crocus. They are a soft violet color with white at the base of each flower's cup and a bright yellow center. The yellow is really obvious when you look at the outside of the flower. I originally planted this handful of corms in the Driveway Border and they did come up and eventually flower but they were nearly invisible when everything else started to come up. So I moved them. Somewhere. But where? 
I've been looking for them for the past couple of years and today, hallelujah, I found them. They are up and blooming beautifully in the Rock Garden, under the weeping mulberry. And...even better...there are now two tidy clumps of them, so they probably bloomed last year and I overlooked them, thinking they were the regular species crocus. My hens must have scratched out a few of the corms and they re-rooted a bit further down the slope. I'm tickled.
****
It looks like it's going to be a good year for my miniature daffodils too. I'm seeing their bright little trumpets all over the place. I'm not positive of the variety because I got them originally as pass-alongs from a florist shop after they had faded and were being tossed out. But whatever they are, they are fussy. They multiply like crazy and as soon as they form a clump they "go blind" or stop blooming. I'm constantly having to lift and divide them, which isn't terrible but it is a bit of a bother considering how long regular daffs can go without much effort.
***
I know this sounds like next to nothing, but I made more progress on the Folly Wall today than I have in a long while because I got 20 bricks mortared into place along the south side of the "door jamb" between the two raised beds. I'm hoping to get another 20 or so done tomorrow, then finish up the south door jamb on Friday. Since this is a tall skinny stack of bricks (only two bricks wide), I don't want to go too high all at once because I am not sure if wet mortar will hold that well that high. So I figure do it in stages, let the mortar set, and then I don't run the risk of the whole thing toppling over!
***
Started my celery seeds today. I also went ahead and moved the brassicas, hardy hibiscus, and shasta daisy seedlings into the greenhouse. Our overnites aren't supposed to go to freezing for the next week at least, so I think they'll do well. I covered the flats with fleece for night, just to be safe. With the GH re-covered and weathertight, the temperature inside was about 8 degrees warmer than outside, despite it being a rainy, heavily overcast day.
Sunday was one of those days when I suddenly made a big step forward with the Folly Wall project. That is so typical around here. I'll work like mad on something, then get called away and the project can linger for months with nothing being done. Then another good day and lots done. Yesterday I got the little footer trench filled with gravel, tamped level. Set the first course of concrete blocks (just 6) and leveled them; this is the beginning of one wall of the big raised bed at the top. Once that first course was done, I was able to resume work on the little "patio" of crazy paving that will run right up to the bottom of that raised bed. That was made more difficult by the fact that everything was trampled mud. But I got the weeds dug out, leveled, then cut and placed old plastic feed bags as weed block. Hauled buckets of fine grit up to cover them.
I found I did not have nearly enough of the "crazy paving" (broken concrete paving I salvaged from some guy's walkway) to finish that area. Hmm.... I dug out an old rectangular wooden form we used years ago to make the concrete pads under the deck steps. I didn't want to suddenly go from irregular paving (which, I might say looks pretty darn good!) to big slabs of rectangular concrete so I stuck bits of wood inside the frame to divide it up into random "chunks." Mixed and poured concrete and Bob's your uncle. Five more odd shaped pieces for the paving. It may look a bit different, but after some weathering in place should be fine. I'll have to make more today, but I am considering a line of square pavers right up against the wall of this new raised bed, just to make things a bit easier.
Fired with enthusiasm, I drove down to Lowe's in Maryland and bought an 80-pound bag of mortar so that I can begin to mortar all this paving into place today. Our temps are supposed to get to 65 so that should be fine. (I wish they sold mortar in smaller bags...I can't begin to lift 80 pounds and it's so difficult to divide up a big bag like that.) I have to admit it: I love messing about with masonry.
After all that heavy lifting, carrying, and hauling, I thank God and modern science for naproxen. By evening all I wanted to do was lay on the couch with a pillow under my knees 
Today I want to prick out and pot on my Shasta daisy seedlings. They are growing very well and it's time for them to get their own individual pots. I have some more seeds I'd like to start, mostly hardy annual flowers. And all this means I have got to get into the greenhouse and do some shifting and sorting. It looks like (:cross_finger: ) our temps are staying fairly mild so I may consider moving the cabbages, broccoli, Shasta daisies, and hardy hibiscus seedlings into the greenhouse. At any rate, I need to get a table cleared and ready for them. If I get the time, I may try to dig out a heavy duty exterior extension cord and see if it's long enough to run from our outside outlet to the greenhouse. I'd feel a lot better if i could get a little heat out there to keep my green babies warm at night.
