You know….the WARM, SUNNY, DRY weekend that lets us know that it’s not going to be winter forever. I won’t be so rash as to say that spring has finally arrived, but the weather this week was exceptional, and I spent part of each day in the gardens, clearing off the spent plants and even pulling up crabgrass and poison ivy stems.
When your nose is within a foot of the ground you see all sort of things that you might otherwise miss. I realized that the dead stems of the purple fountain grass were covering a pod of daffodils and tulips, so I started there on Saturday morning, digging up the dead annual. It was covering some of my favorite daffodils, the Ice Follies, which are usually the first to bloom. This year they will loose the race to the traditional daffodils that are planted along the front of the house.
I saw fever few, sweet woodruff, crocus, the tips of Dutch iris leaves, a volunteer vinca that I should exterminate, and tons of iris. I have one pod of iris that is next to a downspout and I can see that I’ll have to move them this year. There are four other HUGE pods of iris that will have to be shifted this year. I meant to get to them last year, and it just didn’t get done. If I wait any longer, they’ll die off for lack of good soil and overcrowding.
I didn’t get everything trimmed, but I made a good start. I can tell that I’m not a kid any more. I can’t work for twelve hours on my hands and knees and still get up and walk away. I need to be more careful with mulch to keep weeding down.
Dear Husband, super guy that he is, took a little time away from varnishing the boat to prune the old shrub rose for me. Following information from Bogie, he cut it back severely. This rose blooms on new canes, so we are encouraging it to put up new canes, while we get rid of the brambles. I hope it makes it. This was one of the plants growing on the grounds when we bought the lot 19 years ago.
Each day that is dry, I hope to put a little time into the gardens so that I don’t have to devote entire weekends to weeding. I’m SO glad we had warm weather. It felt as though I’d been given a treat after a difficult week, and it was lovely to have some time outside. And, YES…..I wore a hat! *G*
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
Good for you, getting out and doing physical labor. It’s about time! *grin* I’ve been slaving over the henbit. Last year was an exceptional year for weed-growing and I was out of town so much, anyway, that I am paying for it this year. I hear you on the “getting up” part of the weeding exercise. Good for the hat. Did you use sunscreen? (You probably didn’t need it with as much shade as is available in your yard.) Yeh, for spring!
HUH! I really wish I had been able to be MORE physical about that labor! I know what missing a year in the gardens is like. Weeds and unwanted plants get a foothold and you might as well start from scratch on that bed.
No, I didn’t use sunscreen, but I did wear long sleeves, so that should have helped. I can tell you live MUCH further south than I do. There isn’t a leaf in sight yet…. so much for shade! *G*
Yea for Spring….except for the poison ivy. 🙁