Well, the old saying of In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb obviously has never been in Colorado. We had some HORRENDOUS winds & yuck on Friday & Saturday the 29th & Saturday the 30th, but Sunday the 31st was gorgeous. Lots of rain predicted for this month.. we need it desperately!

I don't have any blooms yet, nothing's quite at that point. I do have a couple of tulips coming up, but my hyacinths aren't showing themselves. Maybe they died? They grew nicely last year...

Predicted to get rain today, snow tonight, snow & rain mix tomorrow. That should wake everything up! But I know some of y'all have some blooms, so let's see them!

And to get everyone in the mood, here's a Trumpeter.

I have 3 rose beds....2 are pruned and I plan on doing the 3rd today. Lots of winter kill so pruning, to me is a little easier....just cut them back. Sure wish we could get a good soaking rainstorm. The city hasn't turned the secondary water yet and using culinary water outside is expensive.

Lovely rose, fantastic color! I do have a lot of roses blooming, but I am supposed to be doing the income taxes so I am stuck at my desk. Although, as you can see, that does not necessarily keep me on task.

Paul, what is the secondary water system?

I'm just hangin' on till Thursday, when the weather is supposed to get up to the 50's and STAY there! I'm so excited. That Trumpeter is lovely! Speaking of orange roses, I've decided it's time to replace Pat Austin's 2 inch sticks with Lady of Shallot. Just so happens that my wonderful sister got me a gift certificate for DA Roses for my bday! I can't order right away, because it would take some of the fun out of torturing over the catalog (I wish the pages would just absorb me).

The secondary water system is not purified like the culinary water. Currently it costs $21 a month. I can use the secondary water every other day with no watering on Sunday so the tanks can refill. The exterior taps on the house are culinary and I do use them a little in the spring but the water is more expensive. I love to drink water from the hose but when the secondary system comes on I have to be careful to not drink that water. I have taps in my garden for the secondary system. I still do not have a sprinkling system and use hoses.

What a good idea! I wonder how common such systems are around the country?

PPal - I have no idea, never heard of a system where you can buy non-potable water! I wish they offered that here... Would save me a TON of $!! .. well, not really 'cuz in the worst months my water bill is about $110-$120 and the best months my bill is about $75. Why so high? I'm such a water hog? No, actually, over $60 of that is in fees & taxes ($42.50 alone in greywater fee, $10 for tap fee, another $12 for sewer fee...)

Katie - It's been absolutely magnificent here, so you should be getting the pretty weather soon! but I wouldn't cry too much if it rained every day for the next month or so....

Saving a ton of money on water would be great. My neighborhood has a communal well and the minimum payment is $158 for two months. I can only stay under the minimum for a few months out of the year, however, so my bill is usually closer to $300 and has gone as high as $415 during a period when there was no rain and I had a lot of new things planted and had to water them every day.

Zuzu - I think, if my water bill was that bad, I'd be growing just rocks & dirt & plastic flowers!!

I hope April turns out to be a beautiful month in the garden for everyone.

I didn't work outside in the garden today. I just went outside and looked and looked and looked at all the tulips and daffodils comming up. As if all my looking is goning to make them grow faster ha-ha.

I went outside but it is colder today and windy with no sun so it is just not that nice a day. I didn't stay out that long before I ended up back inside again.

I am already plotting my fall bulb order in my head. That is when I plan it, when the spring bulbs come up. I watch the blooms and plot so that by the time the spring show is done I know what I need to order for the fall. I fear it is going to be a whopping amount of bulbs again. This falls 4.999 bulbs was almost too much to plant and I bet I end up with an order just as large this year again.

We got rain today! And sleet! And Hail! And some stuff in between that looked like frozen pastina. Crazy stuff.
I'm so relieved to see some moisture because my well went out and I have no way to water my plants until I can get some plumbers out here to work on the system. I've been waiting for 3 weeks now. Hope my name comes up soon!
The well we use for drinking water is still functioning, but it is much deeper and newer. If it goes out, we have no option other than to truck in water.
I can't use the drinking well for outdoor watering without re-running some plumbing to circumvent the water softener and purifier, and, I would have to run a hose from indoors.
This could be an interesting summer. This was supposed to be the year I get more hydrants and permanent drip lines, but now I will be grateful to just have water for the hoses.
The daffodils have started blooming, so I may have some for the show next weekend. There's a game I want to see in Atlanta next weekend, so I may not get to enter the daffodils. Atlanta's so pretty this time of year, and Kansas is still pretty dreary, so it doesn't take much to get me out of here.
Last fall I broke a few bones and couldn't finish the fall chores, so I'm playing catch-up putting in shrubs that spent the winter in pots. The Palatine, Austin and Edmunds orders have arrived, and I already have about half in the ground. We had a few days in the 70s where it looked safe to plant, and then we got the cold weather and snow after that, so I hope they all made it.
The Edmunds order this year was a big improvement over what I received last year. I just hope they break dormancy. That was the issue last year, and I made the mistake of not calling them to request a refund. If it happens again this year, I'll really feel like a fool!

Hey Cindi!! Haven't seen you here in a while.. So sorry to hear you broke some bones!! Omg!! But you're doing better now? Can you post pix of your edmunds roses? I refused to order from this season based on the crappy little tiny thing they sent me last year!

I went to a couple of nurseries this Sunday.. Nicks gardens & Tagawa gardens. Nicks only had the 1.5 gal peat-pot body bag roses. Sure, they were Weeks roses, but $32.99 for a body bag rose still in dormancy???? Especially since I can wait 3 weeks to the Night Of Wine & Roses & get a beautifully grown rose for $36.99 - 20%?

I use to have $70 - $80 for 15 years and then we moved and it was $30,Im getting a pump for the well on the property so my plants will be watered for free.
I we had not moved I was going to put in a rain water catchment system.....

My onion sets that I ordered last week just arrived in the mail and so did the vetch and clover seeds I bought from Peaceful Vally Farm Supply. I should go out and plant them but I am not going too. It is too cold!!! Maybe tomorrow will be better. It would be if the wind died down.

We share a large neighborhood well with 27 homes and pay a flat fee of $165 for 3 months which includes monthly water testing and a once a year extensive testing. I can use as much water as I want.

Just wait until you need a new well. I was paying $15 every two months for unlimited water for more than 20 years, but now we're paying off a 40-year loan on the new well. I'll be dead long before the loan's paid off and we revert back to reasonable rates.

Since we have our own well, our water use is only reflected on our electrical bill. However we have had to replace the pump twice - not a minor undertaking as it is 300' underground.

There's enough money in the HOA savings for a replacement or repairs if needed.

I have the best of all things I have lake water and well water AND city water my neighbor pumps the water up from the lake for there yard and mine and when they treat the weeds in the lake I have my well !! we just got city water last spring