Did A Little Spring Cleaning

Did a little spring cleaning recently. Tell me why do I leave my perennial bed looking like this all winter? I really should have cleaned it up last fall. Guess I was leaving the seed pods on the echineacas for the birds...yeah, that sounds good!



Really it had more to do with being so busy with online sales and fall craftshows than anything else. Plus I really don't like late fall in my perennial bed...it is a lot duller than spring....the flowers are all dying. We even had an earlier than usual frost for here and the snow was flying, if only briefly on Halloween weekend.


Anyway, I finally got out there and got all the beds cleaned our, cut back and mulched. Even bought some pansies to plant around the tree and in the front porch bed, but if the weather keeps going like it has been, they will be toast before too long.


One nice thing about our early spring and really warm temps is that my echineceas are popping through. They are my favorite flower and it looks like all the varieties have survived another winter. I can't wait til all my flowers come in bloom. I'll be sure to share Mother Natures beauty with you all too!

Until next time....

Oh My Aching Back!

With temps in the 60's on Thursday and 70's on Friday, I decided it was time to clean out my huge perennial bed that we put in last year. The echineceas, the bee balm, the coreopsis and sedum had long ago died down for the growing season and the remnants remained. So with the break in the weather, decided it was time to get the beds ready for spring.



So Sean and I cut back all the dried flower stalks and cleaned out all the leaves that accumulated on Thursday. We got a huge bag of debris.



Friday, Joshua and Sean went to Home Depot and picked up 23 bags of mulch. I like to use bagged mulch as it's easier than moving a truckload of mulch one wheelbarrow at a time. We just put the bags where we want them and then open them up.

After working 2 hours, we got the front perennial bed, the lower front tier, the bed under the arborvitea, the bed around the linden tree and the side yard perennial bed all mulched.

We still have to mulch the pathway in the side yard and all the backyard beds, but that will have to wait til my back rests and another warm day comes along. I still need to prune back my rose bushes and wisteria in a few weeks.

I can't wait til spring gets here, so I can see which of my perennials have come back and which haven't. I am really hoping that they all do, as they cost me a fortune last year.