Nothing too introspective here. Just a heads up about what I saw in the garden today.
The weather has been warm the last couple of days with abundant sunshine! That kind of day beckoned me outside to do some weeding and cleanup of the debris which has accumulated over the winter. For you see, in my zone (7 with microclimates of 8 in my garden), weeds grow all winter long. Yes, I must weed in WINTER, too!!!
After weeding, I next went after the debris i.e. dead foliage, autumn leaves, and what did I find?! New growth! Already! Some of the plants poking their heads up through the soggy soil were echinacea (one even has a stunted bloom!), salvia, lemon balm, spearmint, sedum, day lilies, thalictrum 'Black Stockings', roses, hymenoxys acaulis (sundancer daisy), verbena, aster,, pulmonaria, woodland poppy, columbine, heuchera, and more that I've not noted here.
The hellebores are blooming but suffered breakage from the ice storm that roared through here two weeks ago. Hence, they are broken and sorry looking but there are a few courageous blooms to look at. Miraculously, the camellias are almost ready to pop and suffered not a single broken branch!
Speaking of the ice storm, there were other major causualties in the garden. The "Heritage" river birch has broken limbs at the top of the main trunks, a 20 year old crape myrtle was sheared in two, a blue point juniper was parallel with the ground and both of my full-grown willow oaks have severe damage that will require the work of an arborist and tree-trimmer. BUT, my coral bark japanese maple survived like a navy SEAL!
The neighborhood dogwoods did well under the weight of all that ice. Just an FYI in case you are looking for trees to plant in ice-prone areas.
So, I don't know about you but it was enough to get me excited about spring! In fact, this is the most excited I've been about spring in the last couple of years! I don't know what the new season will bring, but I am ready for whatever it is.
Let's get growing!
The weather has been warm the last couple of days with abundant sunshine! That kind of day beckoned me outside to do some weeding and cleanup of the debris which has accumulated over the winter. For you see, in my zone (7 with microclimates of 8 in my garden), weeds grow all winter long. Yes, I must weed in WINTER, too!!!
After weeding, I next went after the debris i.e. dead foliage, autumn leaves, and what did I find?! New growth! Already! Some of the plants poking their heads up through the soggy soil were echinacea (one even has a stunted bloom!), salvia, lemon balm, spearmint, sedum, day lilies, thalictrum 'Black Stockings', roses, hymenoxys acaulis (sundancer daisy), verbena, aster,, pulmonaria, woodland poppy, columbine, heuchera, and more that I've not noted here.
The hellebores are blooming but suffered breakage from the ice storm that roared through here two weeks ago. Hence, they are broken and sorry looking but there are a few courageous blooms to look at. Miraculously, the camellias are almost ready to pop and suffered not a single broken branch!
Speaking of the ice storm, there were other major causualties in the garden. The "Heritage" river birch has broken limbs at the top of the main trunks, a 20 year old crape myrtle was sheared in two, a blue point juniper was parallel with the ground and both of my full-grown willow oaks have severe damage that will require the work of an arborist and tree-trimmer. BUT, my coral bark japanese maple survived like a navy SEAL!
The neighborhood dogwoods did well under the weight of all that ice. Just an FYI in case you are looking for trees to plant in ice-prone areas.
So, I don't know about you but it was enough to get me excited about spring! In fact, this is the most excited I've been about spring in the last couple of years! I don't know what the new season will bring, but I am ready for whatever it is.
Let's get growing!
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