As I come to the end of March, I often find myself reviewing what has happened in this first quarter of the season. I’m not sure yet if it will have some bearing on the rest of the year or if it is just a cleansing process for me as I move into the heart of the gardening calendar.

My first order of action this time of year is to get my raised beds ready for planting. Due to the highly organic nature of my soil, I have very few weeds and the ones that dared to germinate last fall are very easy to pull out.

Let’s face it, we all love new stuff. We are driven to have the latest version of…. you fill in the blank. Here are some of the new introductions I will be hoping to add to my garden this coming spring.

Surviving our northwest winters has always been a bit of a guessing game when it comes to our gardens. No year is ever the same.

Now, as I look out over my patio and realize that several of my prized container plantings are frozen like a brick, I am wondering what’s going to happen come spring.

When it comes to perennials, the Perennial Plant Association is the place to go when you want to know what is happening in the world of these wonderful plants. One of the things that this association does is to promote certain perennials by declaring a “Perennial Plant of the Year.”

Getting out in the garden and breathing the fresh air, even if it is only 45 degrees, working the various muscle groups, and observing what is happening with the plants is such a rewarding experience that I can’t help but feel sorry for those that don’t even know what they are missing.

It may feel like the dead of winter, but the garden is wide-awake.

From a distance it looks like it is in a deep sleep and nothing of any significance is going on, but with closer inspection it is anything but snoozing.

I kind of short-changed you all last week with only two suggestions of Christmas gifts for the gardener (although they were fabulous ideas in my humble opinion). Here are a few more to sink your soon-to-be acquired Hori-Hori into…