Signs of Early Spring in the Laughing Dragon Garden!

Since February has come to a close, and we had a nice sunny day today, I thought I would take a quick walk around the garden to take stock of things before gardening season starts in earnest.

There are definitely quite a few signs of spring already, even though it is still pretty much "midwinter" by most standards.

The camellia bush by our front door is absolutely covered with buds, more than I can remember seeing in any past year. It's a strange plant, because its flowering season happens in fits and starts, lasting from January till May, sometimes.

We already have a couple of incredibly bright and vibrant blooms and it should only be a couple of weeks before many of them suddenly burst out and become beautiful flowers. Really looking forward to that!

Within the garden proper, the chives are already starting to shoot up after be their winter dormancy, and those "onion looking things" at right are actually garlic starting to grow for the season. And yes, that's a lone parsley bush that has wintered, in the back right.

Our little garden mascot says she is definitely ready for some sunshine and some warmth! She very much embodies the spirit of the Laughing Dragon Garden. We hope she will bring us good fortune and a bountiful harvest, this year.

Our rose bushes are already setting lots of greenery like there's no tomorrow. All we can do is hope that we don't have a late freeze or snow to kill off their tender leaves. Hopefully the warm trend will continue!

Our ancient apricot tree is also starting to set flowers. It's a little early for her but but hopefully we will have some nice flowers, leading to some apricots.

Apricots aren't really supposed to grow here in our cool and not that sunny climate, so we don't get very many most years. In the course of the years we have lived here, we have had two seasons where we got bumper crops, however.

We've contemplated cutting her down completely because half the tree is not very healthy, but for now she gets to stand for another year.

Okay, so the fence doesn't have much to do with gardening, but I liked the look of the Moon above the sunlit wooden planks and the contrasting bare branches. If you can't have a little fun, what is even the purpose of life?

Meanwhile, our forsythia is about to bloom. Forsythia are always one of those things that show up as a harbinger of spring, and I've even seen them bloom while there has still been snow on the ground. They don't like freezes once they're blooming, however, but even if we do have a late freeze they will end up leafing out even if we don't have the yellow flowers.

Lots of tulips shooting up everywhere; I just hope I can keep the resident bunnies from eating them all before they have a chance to bloom! Rabbits are one of the things we deal with the most as far as things that eat the things we grow, with those and "water rats" being a close second.

Meanwhile, the hellebores are blooming. Technically speaking, hellebores are winter bloomers but they typically get started in mid-January and really also serve as informal notice that the days are getting longer and spring is not that far away.

We have them both in white as well as in a deep purple that's actually hard to spot sometimes. I will be cleaning out dead things from the beds and suddenly realize that I'm standing in the middle of blooming flowers!

Candytufts are another winter bloomer, and our little patch is doing extremely well after several years of doing our best to eradicate a pervasive infestation of buttercups. Buttercups are really among the most invasive of our weeds, although we have tended to not battle them too much because they're actually quite pretty.

But if you're not careful, they will quickly take over everything drowning out the things you're actually trying to get to grow!

Candytufts in close-up

Alas, I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this post short, leaving out some of the things I had hoped to include... because I just discovered that I am standing in ankle deep mud!

As I have mentioned in the past we have had some drainage problems in the Laughing Dragon Garden over the past couple of years, and although we're able to keep it mostly dry it looks like it's time for @denmarkguy to put on his mud boots and clear out the drainage filters. I don't envy him the task because it involves digging around in an 18-inch deep hole filled with 40° water and mud.

So that's about all I have to offer for this update, but I hope to be back with more as gardening season takes hold in earnest!

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All photos are my own!