Spring Cleaning

Cleaning up the garden is not the most glamorous of gardening tasks.  There is the old perennial foliage to be pulled out, the layer of soggy leaves, and the shrubs that need to be pruned.  After the winter we've had, I'm so glad to be outside that even these mundane chores seem fun!  Especially since there are so many signs of life under all that debris.

perennial geraniums

             The mystery lilies are 4 inches tall already.

The first flowers of 2014!

If you haven't done the garden clean-up yet, you'll need to get out there very soon.  Tall grasses have to be cut down before fresh growth comes up through last year's dead stalks.  I found a way to make cutting down grasses easier.  I got a new toy - a soil knife.  It's turning out to be the most useful tool I own.  I used to cut down grasses with my electric trimmer.  It's easier with the serrated edge of the soil knife.  I wish I'd had this year's ago!

                                         Fresh growth is already up on these grasses.

Now is also the time to prune summer-blooming shrubs that bloom on new wood.  Spireas, mop-head hydrangeas, Russian sage, ninebark, and potentillas are in this category.

If it blooms in spring, don't prune until after flowering.

I love euonymus.  It needs no care and looks good all the time.  I took this picture today and it will look great until the snow covers it.  If only there were more plants like that!