March 22, 2017

Spring Cleanup + A New Giveaway Winner

Happy 3rd day of spring!

We have actually gotten some whole hours here and there of sunshine, amidst all the rain, and since my last post the snow has not returned.
Hooray!

One of the most satisfying garden chores is spring cleanup.
This is where you cut back or pull out all of last year's dead flowers to make room for this year's.
For one thing, you get to be out in the [finally!] warmer weather.
Spring sunshine can cure all sorts of what ails you.

Aside from that lovely bonus though, cleaning out the flowerbeds for spring is one of those chores that lends itself to dramatic--nearly immediate--results.

Case in point: my front flowerbeds.

Here's what they looked like a couple of weeks ago:

BEFORE:

It's a wasteland of dead, rotting stems, with little bits of green peeking through.

AFTER:

The tulips have grown at least 3 inches since all that dead stuff was cleared from the top of them.
Look! You can see new shoots coming up from the daylilies, coneflowers, and mums, too!

The red in the middle there are peony buds just coming up.
Plus, more tulips!

I've had to do a section at a time between rain showers (persistence!), but I'm almost all the way down around the corner now. Pretty soon I'll be to the lilac and daisy corridor on the east-side terrace.
My oldest son came out and helped for his daily chore the other day, which was a great boost.

In other news, I had to make a trip to the thrift store and get a couple of sweatshirts that would actually zip up over my big belly (25 weeks and counting!)
I found some for cheap, so it's all good!

It is so fun to see the plants all waking up again.
The other day my husband said to me (while looking rather doubtfully at the pre-cleanup terraces):
"How much of this stuff is going to come back?"
I couldn't help the big grin on my face when I said, "Well, all of it!"
That's the beauty of it, isn't it?
Literally. :)

A few more things I was excited to see:

That, my friends, is bleeding heart foliage.
It's coming!

In the back flowerbed, I'm going to have daffodils soon!!

Obviously, my cleanup efforts have not made it around to this flowerbed yet!
Our lawn is still so wet that we haven't been walking on it yet...and I would have to walk and kneel on it to get to those dead stems.

The sedums are definitely ready to shed last year's stems.
Maybe this week it will dry out some more and I'll be able to get back there!

* * * * *

As I haven't heard anything from Stampin' Sheri, I went ahead and drew another giveaway winner.

Suzanne, this book is for you!
I'll email you today for an address to send it to.
Congratulations!!


1 comment: