Happy Spring, everybody! Sorry to use such a "bad" picture, but it's a bit too early to be taking pictures of flowers, etc. I don't know about you, but I wasn't one bit sad that we had such a "non-winter" this year. We got enough cold and snow the past two winters to last us a good long time.

Bet you have been busy with the weather being so nice. I got all my flower beds cleaned up and the lawn raked by mid-March. All the perennials seem to have gotten off to an early start. Who knows, maybe we'll be seeing flowers a month ahead of normal. Time will tell.

Hope you got your seeds started by now. Without a greenhouse or cold frame it's tough to keep them both cool enough and in bright enough light so they don't get leggy. I don't have a greenhouse, only a big south window, but it's full of tuberous begonia and dahlia tubers starting. No room for seedlings. Guess I'll be buying mine at the nurseries.

I hope you were able to resist the temptation to plow or dig up your garden until it had a chance to dry out. That's hard to do when those green thumbs get to itching! As most of you know, the five kinds of plants that need to be started early from seeds are cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers and tomatoes. The first three are tough guys and can be transplanted into the garden while it's still pretty cold out. Then there are the primadonnas: tomato and pepper plants. These have to wait for warm soil and air temperatures which usually can't be counted on here until about the first of June. All the other kinds of seeds do better if sown directly into the garden.

Be sure to stay after the new weeds as they've been popping up everywhere. Pull or hoe them while they're young. They're easy to do then and you'll get them out of there long before they bloom and set seeds. Be careful using products like Preen. Sure, they keep the weed seeds from germinating, but they keep everything else from growing too. I have a lot of annual flowers that seed themselves every year. Preen would stop them in their tracks.

You should have all your perennials pruned back by now. The roses can usually be done in early to mid-April. The miniature ones are much hardier than the fancy hybrid varieties as the minis don't have a graft to protect. I enjoy the little guys as they take up very little room... usually. They stay nice and tiny in containers, but plant them into the ground and look out! It's like you put them on steroids. Most of the plants get much larger then. Unfortunately, the flowers will remain small.

If you still have holiday and gift blooming plants, some are worth saving and some aren't. Amaryllis can be saved year after year. So can Christmas and Easter cactus. It's best to toss any "forced" bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, crocus and hyacinths. They used up all their energy being forced to bloom out of season. If you do plant them in your flower bed, don't look for them to bloom for at least two or three years, if ever.

Another plant to toss is the poinsettia. They may still look good if you've had them in a sunny window since Christmas, but they won't for long. Once they lose those bright colored flowers (actually called bracts), you might as well tell them goodbye. They are not worth all the effort to keep them growing until next fall, then moving them from sun to a dark room every day for six weeks in order to get them to "flower" again. Just buy a new one next December. That's one of those win-win situations, easy for you and good for the retailer.

Elaine Cerny has gardened most of her life, starting as a kid in 4-H. Since then, she has always kept a garden of some sort, growing everything from fruits and vegetables to flowers and house plants. She has belonged to garden clubs in three states. She is currently an active member of the River City Gardeners Club in Post Falls.