This is a hellebore that seeded itself under the parent and was moved to another bed. Last year it bloomed for the first time in the middle of summer, and had whitish flowers. This year the flowers bloomed at the normal time, late February, and are this green-striped pink. All three hellebores I moved have larger flowers than the parent, and one other has some patterning on the flowers.

The above photos give a mini-tour of my paths, with pots as I’ve placed them so far. I love pots in the garden, and picking colors and sizes to combine. Pots also help with water retention and wind protection, so they aren’t just for prettiness. At this time of year, we can do structural work, adding mulch and gravel, and features like ponds and pots. And we have the fun of walking our garden and seeing what’s coming up. Later I’ll go around and level these; also, I’m holding off putting my ceramic and terra cotta ones outdoors until the frost danger is past.

Here’s how I put up my NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat sign. I decided a post by itself wasn’t making the best use of space, so I bought three 2 x 4 treated boards, each four feet long. I offset them by about fifteen inches, then cut that length off the third board and attached it to the bottom to fill out the post. That left a recess for the birdhouse, one I bought from an Etsy seller. I filled the hole I dug with gravel to hold the post upright, then added Quikrete to cement it in place.