Last Friday I worked only a half-day, and spent most of the afternoon at home in the garden. How lovely it was to have those sunny hours to myself, with no deadlines or meetings in sight! I also walked down to the Dollar Store (stopping along the way to admire plants in front of neighbors' yards) and bought stuff that caught my eye: a package of shade-tolerant flower seeds, a cute reuseable bag, and a pair of simple gardening gloves.

The gloves are nice for keeping my hands warm, and have a bit of rubbery grip on the palms. I will, however, invest in a pair of sturdier ones as well: working with thorny plants requires better hand protection.

Our forecast is for at least the next 10 days to continue on a warm, mostly sunny trend. I recall years when spring seemed to arrive early, but this could also be just a break from the wintery cold. We shall see. A warm February always brings semi-wild Bermuda buttercups (oxalis pes-caprae) into bloom. They're adding a lively note of bright yellow to landscapes around town; although the areas of my yard they've sprung up in are too shaded for flowers to be open more than a few hours a day.

As I look around the garden to see which plants have grown noticeably and which need attention, I've noticed the avocado tree (sprouted from a seed planted in December 2016) is doing great in its new location next to the birdbath and privet hedge. I'm not sure yet if this is the plant I want to establish in my largest empty terracotta pot, as a big flowering bush such as lilac might look prettier, but I could also plant the avocado in the ground near the same area. Hmmm.

I found that some container plants definitely needed to be trimmed and cleaned up. Fuchsias tend to get leggy, nasturtiums drop seeds while stems die out, and the still-unidentified plant with tiny white flowers has started to take over the fencetop planter box. I removed several tendrils from the tangle and added them to a vase of tradescantia that's growing roots in the water, to see if this new plant can be similarly propagated.

My plans for the coming growing season are a lot like last year. I didn't get around to trying some of the new varieties of flowers and herbs I'd been considering, but I do finally have dahlia bulbs, and varieties of sage and basil that do well in our climate shouldn't be too hard to obtain. Growing snap peas and rhubarb to a pick-able stage is still a goal. And will this be the year I finally get a vertical "vegetable patch" going?