Hello and welcome to the story of my adventures in the yard for 2012. My story is that of someone trying to do something that resembles "gardening" despite not being very good at it. Other than keeping the grass cut and the bushes trimmed, the overall goal is to have stuff survive under my care. Success is never guaranteed, but I do the best I can. The fortunes and misfortunes of this adventure are chronicled herein.

The great thing about living in northern Georgia is that by the time February rolls around, the weather is already very agreeable, (unlike where I'm from in central Pennsylvania). I've already had several opportunities to break out the mower this year and mulch a lot of the debris that has accumulated over the winter.

And A LOT of debris accumulates throughout the winter ! The trees around here will take every opportunity to drop stuff on you.

Usually during the first week of March, small buds begin to appear on the trees and bushes. By March 11, the flowering camellia in my front yard was already in full bloom.

It appears that the tall tree and small bush are of two different families, judging by the flowers produced by each. The tree produces what looks like roses.

The smaller bush produces a different flower.

The small bush was being attended to by the local yard maintenance crew.

And, he was doing a good job.

The loropetalums in front of the house are starting to bloom.

I've been trying to trim and shape the shrubs in an attempt to make them look not so overgrown.

At this point, the Sweetgum tree is just beginning to awaken.

The Azaleas in front are blooming. I'm actually going to try and cut this monster back and separate it into the two distinct colors seen in the photo.

I remember when I first moved into this house. The bushes in this area of the yard had been taken over by vines, (which later turned out to be poison ivy - go ahead, ask me how I know). I removed as much as I could, and did some thinning and shaping. Today, things are improving.

It's hard to tell from the lighting in this picture. But there are three Azalea bushes here.

The vines comment from above applies here also. After a bunch of cutting, pulling, and general hackery, I now have some nice flowers beginning to appear.

More greenery is appearing on everything moving further up the side yard toward the garage. My goal is to shape some of the things that are here, to make them look like actual "shrubs." A lot of stuff here has been overgrown for some time now. Maybe I can do something about it.

There isn't anything happening at the front corner of the garage just yet. But, if I remember right, this crape myrtle will bloom in the summer.

The flowering cherry tree at the back corner of the garage is just now beginning to turn white.

It's hard to see from the previous photo. But, the flowers seen in the photo above are sprouting up everywhere on the branches.

Soon, my back yard will be green as well. But for now, I wait.

While I was building the new patio, I found several of what I've always known as flagstones, (even though that may not be the right term). With that project completed, I thought I'd try to arrange the flagstones into a small walkway.

I arranged them from the walkway off of the driveway to the new patio, curving around the cherry tree and the clump of mystery bulbs that I still don't know what to do with yet.

I think I have to "divide" these clumps into individual bulbs before I replant them. I'll have to do some research on this.

I still have to loosen the dirt to ensure each stone sits as securely as possible. And I have to do something with the bulbs. But for now, this looks pretty good.