I have a number of plants that overwinter and bolt in the spring or have been with me for many years. This year I'm a bit worried about some of them. Normally my strawberries do great, going into a sort of hibernation through winter and then popping back up in the late winter. However, because we did not have much of a winter this year, it is looking like a lot of them died. I may end up having to replace a lot of my strawberry plants this year.

Thankfully there is this great little nursery, Deep Creek Garden Center, just down the street from me. They always have amazing specials on strawberry plants. Usually they already have a bunch of berries on them, which is great. So I'd imagine we'll be down there buying plants again this year. Almost all of the strawberry plants I have right now came from them. Some I've had for several years.

My herbs seem to have done well, though. The chives are popping back up, as are the two mint plants and parsley. I think one of the parsley plants died, which means I'm going to have to rip apart the planter, get rid of the dead plant, and then replant the live one. The rosemary made it through the entire winter without ever going dormant, as did one of the lavender plants. The sage is popping back up as well. It's a huge plant and really needs to find a home where someone can put it in the ground.

The celery did really well, too. I've had some of the plants for a while, so this will be their third season. I added a few more plants last year. They tend to overwinter pretty good as long as they have protection during periods of really cold weather, ice, etc. I allow the leaves from the trees in the backyard to fill their planters and that seems to protect them every year.

The kale is doing really good. In fact, it's already bolting. Normally mine would start bolting in late April. This time it started in late February. It's just too warm and it has the plants all confused.

I also have one big planter that has all kinds of bulbs in it. We've just essentially left it alone and let it do whatever it wants each year. Sometimes we get tulips, sometimes lilies. Some years it's orange lilies, sometimes pink. It's always a nice surprise.