As the East Coast deals with another round of rain, wind and general gloom, the scheduled show in the garden continues, just as Mother Nature intended. Besides the fuzzy flower buds of magnolia blossoms, there are fat rosettes of tall sedums pushing out of the soggy ground and sturdy peony stems doing their best red asparagus impersonation. My eye is drawn to the flowering crabapple (Malus 'Bob White'). While it is not yet in bloom, its fresh green leaves are aglow against a gray sky—bringing joy to my heart. With a soon-to-follow prolific show of delicate soft pink flowers, this is THE star of my spring garden.

What is your garden's star this spring?

My neighbor has been busy preparing her garden, making room for an expected feathered flock of chickens. A beautiful coop crafted in Vermont has just arrived and is about to be set in a well chosen part of the garden. As I watch from my side of the fence, I am a little envious.

Chickens can be a great addition for the urban gardener. And many cities have zoning allowances for the birds, with some restriction on roosters for the obvious reason (but please always check your local laws and zoning). While they are not known to be smart, they do have personalities and can be fun companions. They are more eco-friendly than your pet dog or cat—with benefits:

• they provide food for your family with a zero carbon footprint from coop to plate 
• their waste is high in nitrogen and is excellent for your compost 
• they are a natural garden pest control for grubs, aphids, earwigs, and other bugs 
• they help aerate your soil and breakdown vegetation as they forage, scratching and pecking for morsels 
• they eat your kitchen and food scraps
• backyard chickens produce a better quality egg that is higher in vitamin E and A. Their eggs are also significantly higher in beta carotene and omega-3 fatty acids than farmed chicken eggs 

I admit I have long thought about jumping on this bandwagon. There was a time when I spent months reading and researching all-things-chicken. I was looking forward to delicious eggs, a personal insect control team and ultra-rich compost. So I surprised myself when I made an awkward discovery that put the brakes on this dream. Let me explain.

A number of years back, in Portland OR, my brother and his then girlfriend adopted a small-sized, glossy black rooster they named "Chicken". I was sent adoring photos of "Chicken" along with stories of his many antics. "Chicken" hanging out on the grapevine. "Chicken" visiting the neighbors. "Chicken" outsmarting a cat. Oh I was in love. At the first available opportunity, I jumped on a plane to visit "Chicken"...er, I mean, my brother. Not one day on the ground did I realize I am afraid of birds! Scared fertilizerless of them!!

Now that my neighbor has a coop, I am reminded of my phobia and that long ago dream. I am envious because I know this can never be for me. Perhaps my neighbor will take pity and share some of her bounty with me.

photo courtesy: mypetchicken.com

My Zone 6b coastal Connecticut garden is still too wet for me to take a proper walkabout; I always try not to unnecessarily compact the soil. But sitting inside, cup of tea in hand, I am starting to feel the pressure. You see I have just gone over my list of late winter garden chores and I have barely made a dent. Oh well, such is life for gardeners.

MARCH GARDEN TO DO

Patrol the Garden: Look for signs of winter damage on trees and shrubs and remove immediately. Check for moss growing in your lawn; this implies its nutritional needs have changed and the lawn could benefit from added lime in the spring. Also make sure your mulch layer is still in place.

Order Vegetable Seeds: This is prime seed/vegetable catalog season. I enjoy this "chore" and have been known to spend too many hours looking at catalogs.

Cut Down Ornamental Grasses: Cut old foliage down a third of its height before any new growth starts to push up. At this time I usually trim the leaves of my epimedium and clean up the tall sedums.

Clean Out Bird Boxes of old nests, preparing for new bird families to move in.

Prune Deciduous Trees and Shrubs: The perfect time to prune is when these are dormant and you can see the structure clearly. Always use sharp tools. Besides taking out suckers and waterspouts, be on the look out for the three D's: damage, disease and death. And please don't "paint" the wounds. They heal very nicely without any help.

Feed Spring bulbs: As they start to push out of the ground, apply the appropriate all-natural fertilizer. I've been using Garden's Alive products for years.

Flower Bed Clean Up: top dress with the appropriate all natural fertilizer and finished compost. Mulch only when the soil has warmed up.

As I look around my garden, now in a wintery sleep, I see by the doggy footprints in the snow that my dogs have changed their usage pattern. For those of you who have dogs and love to garden you know that you can't simply train dogs to respect your garden's needs. I'm talking about the need not to be trampled. Not to be pruned. Not to be eaten. You will also understand when I say that every dog is different and the way they use the garden will change over time. But generally speaking, there are dogs who chase; dogs who dig; dogs who are water obsessed. And before I continue I must say that no dog should spend its entire life in the garden. All dogs need exercise and walking. Otherwise they will be destructive no matter how you design your garden.

The two dogs I have now "inherited" a garden designed with my previous dog in mind. She was easy to design for since she had a naturally calm personality. Now enter two boisterous types who when young used the garden to spend their excess puppy energy by racing in mad circles, despite their puppy school homework and walks three times a day. They also enjoyed tasting plants and "helping" me to prune. Even with their hard effort, the garden flourished with a few minor changes. Now these two are mature 5 year old Rhodesian Ridgebacks who like to patrol the perimeter in the hopes of finding a foolish—and tasty—squirrel. Since my husband and I have also changed our habits in the garden, it's now time to seriously rethink the design. This post is the first of Project Dog, proven tips that have worked with my dogs and perhaps for the dog in your life too.

THE UNWANTED DOG TRACK
Like young children, dogs love to run around in the garden. Grassy areas are great, right? If you have dogs like mine, you'll soon find you'll also have a not so lovely dirt track from where they like to race. What to do? It's always easier to work with your dog's play patterns rather than go against them. So carefully observe how your dogs play and at what spots they start to run. This is usually when they dig in and injure your lawn's roots. With my dogs, I saw that they like to start their races close around our porch. I redirected their habit by changing the shape of the plant border. I then planted it with denser shrubs mixed with less friendly, prickly plants such as juniper and roses. This area was then softened with ornamental grasses and coneflowers. Perhaps due to their short fur, they very quickly learned to turn that corner slower. Soon their little brains rebooted to the point where they no longer chased each other there. Success!

This February 14th many of us will be seeing red. We will see red in the form of Valentine hearts and love bouquets. We will see the lucky red envelopes and firecrackers of Lunar New Year. This is a color that represents joy, passion, and importance. Yet I know of too many who shy away from it in their garden. Yes—it can be bold, if that is your intent. But did you know it can help you manipulate your space, too? It provides balance between flower and foliage colors; it creates distance and depth to your plant beds or container arrangements; and it harmonizes those brassy coppery or bronze leaves. 

Make 2010 a year you do something new (dare I say "auspicious"?) in the garden. Try some of my favorite garden reds: Potentilla 'Gibson's Scarlet', cinquefoil; Hemerocallis 'Frankly Scarlet', daylily; Paeonia delavayi, red tree peony