Spring has Sprung

Well, it isn't exactly spring yet, at least until the equinox on March 20th. But this weekend was gorgeous - in the upper 50's and bright sun all day Sat and Sun. Unfortunately, I was stuck inside working. I managed to get out for a quick walk through the garden today though. Considering there is still about 2 inches of snow on the ground in shady places, I was surprised to see quite a few new green baby plants coming up! Here's a photo roundup of each happy harbinger.

First, I'm thrilled with the rosemary you see to the left. It is too cold in my climate for anything but the hardiest rosemary to survive the winter. Two years ago I bought an unspecified variety from a local nursery and it completely died over the winter. So last spring I got a new variety that was supposed to be extra cold tolerant - Logee Blue. Considering this was the coldest and snowiest winter we've had in about 20 years, I never thought it would survive. But as you can see from the left, it looks pretty good! I'm sure we'll be seeing new growth on it soon.

Here's a couple more that don't need much explanation.

Chamomile that reseeded itself for the second spring in a row (I only planted one plant in 2008!):
Biennial Chard growing back for it's second season:
Black Hollyhock (This will be it's second season. I hope it flowers this year, unlike last summer.):
Chives (I am so looking forward to sprinkling those yummy flowers all over my salads!):
Mystic Merlin Mallow (It produced one pretty purple flower last year. I can't wait to see more.)
These were the first pictures I've taken with my new camera. Its a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. I still have to finish reading the instructions to learn more about taking manual shots, so these were just taken on auto macro setting. I'm pretty impressed with the quality for quick auto shots though. They definitely look better than my old camera, and its great I only had to take one photo of each - no blurring from shaky hands.