Fickle Idaho Weather

Spring is here, sort of, kind of, well maybe. Heck with what the calendar says. This morning before leaving for work I took a walk around the back yard to see what might be coming up.

Here is what I see so far:

BLOOMING:
Crocus and hellebore

JUST COMING UP:
Bleeding Heart
Columbine
Delphinium
Lamium
Rhubarb
And of course some stuff I don't know what is.

SHOWING SOME BUDS
Rhododendron
Lilac

I was feeling all springy and excited about the coming growing season.

Then throughout the day the weather turned wacky on me. The sun was shining. Then skies got grey. Then it was SNOWING with great big flakes and looked like it was going to stick. By the time I got off work at 5:30, however, it was blue skies again. Welcome to Idaho!

Ever changing weather notwithstanding, I AM excited to get back to my gardens.
We have big plans for the front yard this year...

We are taking out the great big Locust Tree that makes such a mess all year long. Hey, I LOVE my trees, but that particular one has got to go! Then, we will plant a Red Bud tree and a Weeping Cherry along with some whisky barrels of flowers and decorative rock. We are still weighing the pros and cons of whether we will keep the lawn or take it out entirely.

We do plan to put in three raised beds for vegetables.

Before I do anything too drastic we will be going to the upcoming Boise Flower and Garden show (March 25-27) to get some ideas and ask questions about what grows well in this zone.

In the mean time I'm exploring various garden blogs to see what tips I can pick up.
These are some I've been checking out:

Gardens of the Wild West
Natsplants
Our Life in Idaho

One last thing...I scored a half price family membership to the Idaho Botanical Gardens through Groupon, so I'm looking forward to checking that out...perhaps this weekend if the weather is nice. But then, this IS Idaho. So it could be sunny. Or snowing. Or both.