Spring Is Fast Approaching...and I'm Tired!

13 years ago

I have been busily cleaning my garden. I'm not through, but I made great strides this week. and blooms are gladdening my heart.

The Tulip Tree: This tree blooms at least 3 times a year...but it will be leafed out the other times:

The Iris beds are a lot more work than daylilies. Because I live in the south, they will rot if leaves (even their own) are let stay on them. I have already done one major and one minor cleaning in the iris beds. The two big beds are past my main daylily bed:

{{gwi:675660}}

You can see the newest iris bed, but you can also see this butterfly garden still has a lot of work to go. The Daylilies have been weeded and old foliage removed, but a lot is still to be done. The cobalt blue bird bath is left on its side until spring is in full swing to avoid freezing and breaking...the saucer is in the greenhouse. There are three daylily sections in this bed.

The daylily bed you can barely see in the foreground has had a lot of the foliage and leaves removed, but it has more work to be done. It will also get Preened. I had planned to put alfalfa meal on it, but a "gullywasher" rain is forecast, so I'll do that Sunday.

Hyacinths are my first bloomer, and I love the fragrance. These have been repeating for about 4 years now, but the voles got a lot of them, so I will be adding hyacinths this fall.

I managed to spend about six hours in the gardens yesterday. I am tired! So, how is your clean-upcoming, and what's "up" in your garden?

kay

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Comments (15)

crackingtheconcrete
13 years ago
Hi,Kay.:)Lookin' good!
Nothing is up in my garden, except ice again, which my son gleefully spent hours chopping into shards with a hammer (why spend money on toys, I ask?) I just pulled in 20 6"containers of seedlings into the apt. basement and they are stretching up a bunch of leaves..really excited!

Coming up are:

Cat Dancer x Running Late
Swiss Diplomat x Shuffle the Deck
English Lavender x Frank's Catnapping
Spanish Fiesta x Lava Flow
Starman's Voyage x Predatory Flamingo
Seedling x Magic of Oz
Kennesaw Mt.Lemon Sorbet x Wedding Gown (1 meager seed..but at least it survived the winter) LOL
Rock Candy x Jane Trimmer..and some others *cough*
yeah..I went a little nuts on seeds last year

Otherwise..just waiting for soil to unfreeze.:)
organic_kitten
Original Author
13 years ago
crackingtheconcrete,

That is exciting. I really want to see what you get from Spanish Fiesta X Lava Flow. I am an orange freak! You have a great crop coming.
kay
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newyorkrita
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Kay- Your yard looks fantastic already. I can't believe how much green you have already at this time of year. No green here, everything is still winter blahs. Your daylilies look to be growing like mad. Nothing here.
organic_kitten
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi Rita!
I've been working in this yard for three weeks now. We are all expecting late freezes, but so far, we have been spared.

There is still a fair amount to do. Yes, the daylil;ies are really growing, and the more they grow, the harder it is to groom them. I don't have a very large area to clean up now, at least.

This is the earliest spring I can remember.

kay
newyorkrita
13 years ago
March is when I start gardenwork for the year around here. I start with spring cleanup and neating up things, getting rid of old stems and such as I leave my garden in the late fall over winter. Then I always do the really big rose trimming in the spring. I start acording to the weather and its a big job as I have so manny roses. Some years earlier and some later. This years looks like I should be able to start soon.

Keep those spring pictures coming, we need to see some color here up north after the long winter this year.
hostaholic2 z 4, MN
13 years ago
Oh, so to nice to see things growing in your pics. Thanks for posting. Nothing here but snowdrifts and more snow on the way.
Cindy zone 6a
13 years ago
I love the Hyacinth, thanks for posting those. I haven't had to much trouble with the voles (yet) My Hyacinth are just peaking out. After we had a flood, now we are getting snow. I am going CRAZY. I can't get out into the garden yet. I had one day to get out there and that was truly a gift. I want to feel tired from being outside.
Cindy
organic_kitten
Original Author
13 years ago
Cindy,

If the voles start at all, get really aggressive. I couldn't believ how fast they multiplies!

kay
beachlily z9a
13 years ago
Kay, I've been working outside too! Accomplished a lot and lots more to go! I was picking up bits and pieces of trimmings and not paying enough attention--poked my eye with am African iris leaf. Owwwwwww .. no fun!

Be careful out there!
organic_kitten
Original Author
13 years ago
Good grief, beachlily!

Be careful...You need those eyes. Isn't it great to be outside again? We had over 3.5 inches of rain again today. The roses love it, and everything else seems to be growing too. I have buds on my azaleas, peonies are coming up, verbena is blooming...two of my achillea plants are growing like rip! I'm loving it.
kay
beachlily z9a
13 years ago
I'm going to the dr. today re. the eye. Nasty!

We had 1" of rain overnight and it's raining again--cold rain with much cooler temperatures behind it.

Kay, your garden sounds beautiful! Your pictures of "right now" look great, but the next month should be stunning!
organic_kitten
Original Author
13 years ago
beachlily
Get some good sunglasses. That will protect those valuable orbs in more ways than one.

I wear the last pair of glasses (never will understand why I chose them, with the heavy frames). Since they are tranasition lenses, they work perfectly for yard work.

I am so sorry you hurt your eye. Usually it is a knee I hurt when I am out working.

I hope the eye is better soon.
kay
beachlily z9a
13 years ago
Kay, thanks so much for the concern. The Dr. said that the African Iris cut a flap in my cornea. He gave me antibiotic eye drops for 4 days. That's all the time it will take to heal! The significant thing is that he wants to see me tomorrow so that he can make sure there is no infection--he doesn't want me to be caught on the weekend with pain and no one to see me. He said the possibility of infection is high, except that I flushed my eye three times with lots of lubricating fluid right after this happened. He said that probably saved me a lot of pain!

Everyone needs to be aware of this possibility. Happens quickly. It hurts and it threatens the health of our eyes.

Oh, I'm out of the garden until next Monday, but the first thing I'll do is remove the African Iris--it's the only stiff leaf plant I have!
organic_kitten
Original Author
13 years ago
Beachlily,
Rinsing is a very wise thing to do for eye accidents. Prevention is the only thing better. Corneas are no plaything. Whatever you do, go back to the MD for that check.

I became very eye conscious when I taught Chemistry labs. I was one of the more obnoxious instructors and would yell across the room asking by name "so-and-so, where are your safety glasses?" I had an assistant and once, I noted her glasses were off and yelled at her. Not 30 seconds later, she smelled the top of a test tube with a reaction on-going, (strictly against all rules) and it blew up in her face! I quickly had her at the eye wash and we rinsed and rinsed, then transported her to the hospital. She had minor burns all over her face except for the area covered by the safety glasses she had replaced when I yelled at her. (I had felt bad for yelling until she was hurt). She was very grateful for my rudeness.

Sunglasses are a good idea too for all of us gardeners...you just never know.

beachlily, I am so glad you are going to be okay. We need the eye to garden and to appreciate the beautiful places.
kay
beachlily z9a
13 years ago
OK, Kay, just wanted to let you know that the doctor was shocked today. I'm almost healed. He told me that my eyes were the most healthy he had ever seen! Having flushed them, I shouldn't have even needed to go to him, but he said that when I responded to the pain, that was great. So he said that tomorrow I wouldn't feel anything, but to keep taking the eye drops through Monday.

Thank you so much for caring about this issue. For that I owe you some daylilies! If you want Santa's Little Helper .. you can have it. I have it in a pot and didn't have room for it so it's just sitting around. Look it up and see if it is something you would like. It's a Trimmer 2007. Please just send me an email through this site or just respond here. I'm not offended if you don't want it, there will be something else later in the year. Thanks so much!

Spring Is Fast Approaching...and I'm Tired!

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