Spring Clean-up

I started my spring clean-up a bit later because we've had more chilly days and because last year I read that leaving the leaves and debris and such should be left until April to make sure insect eggs and such nesting in them have had a chance to hatch.

But I finally got out a few hours at a time and got to the weeding!

Every year seems to be a new culprit and this year was one of the worst!

There are these little weeds I remember having a few of last year, but this year they were everywhere...unless they're just starting or dried past their peak, the second you touch them, the spiky seeds SHOOT OUT!! 

I'm talking like shrapnel flying out of an explosion...these things fly a few feet in the air! (Extra impressive considering the plant is usually only 4-8" tall!) It's a good thing I wear glasses because some have hit my face!  

(I tried getting a video, but you couldn't see the skinny seeds flying...but looking it up, apparently it's called shot weed 😆 Appropriate!)

So that was painful as I tried to cup them individually with my gloved hand to minimize the shooting (versus my normal aggressive, grab handfuls of weeds and yank method).

They were the worst in the long wildflower border, but I finally got it cleaned up!

(after photos are much more dramatic when you take before photos! 😑)

I then moved to the front beds and got them all spiffy...

My honeysuckle had exploded way earlier than I thought (below shows it by the 3rd week of March!) and I had kept delaying pruning :-/  

So I had to rather aggressively cut it down, knowing (though always with some concern!) that it would come back vigorously and sure enough, within a few weeks (pictured above) it was growing quite profusely again (though this time with me actually training the vines around the trellis!)

That one shoot is reaching his little arms to the heavens just waiting to grab the house. Sorry, fellow...NOT happening!

Taken from the porch; this entire corner was covered in sprawling weeds! So I cleared them out and looks like we'll have a spectacular lily year! I still need to clean up the rock debris leftover from our stoop restoration, but I did at least get all the cat poop cleaned out and black mesh put down to prevent them in the future 😑

I was counting the number of days I thought I would need for cleaning up all the beds. Most went even faster than I thought, which I totally credit my Mom-in-law and her spectacular  fall clean-up  for! 

In the count was 2 days for the shade garden.

Ha!

I was out there for about 2 hours one afternoon and got about a 5 foot section done! 😵

It was a mess!

It was also because there was also an accident. 

I talked about how I'd totally ignored this garden last year and as a result, tufts of grass started growing. Grass has the most substantial root system of any plant (root to plant ratio, grass surpasses trees in terms of root spread and hardiness)....sooooooooo, you can imagine what happens when huge chunks of it have to be dug out....

I suddenly realized that normally my favorite little groundcover is visible and blooming by now. I cleared away the leaves I leave on for the fall and sure enough...nothing. The 1-2' strip along the front of the bed was groundcover free. Whoooooops! 

The good news is that I have it growing elsewhere, including in the back of this bed, so rather than just yanking out weeds and not worrying about pulling out some groundcover that always needs to be thinned anyway, I tried to remove them in such a way so as to leave any groundcover that was growing nearby and then I'd transport groundcover from where it shouldn't be or was abundant down to the front again. So yeah, weeding took a lot longer!

So yeah....liiiiiiittle bit messy! 

But after several days of several hours at a time, pulling out weeds, thinning overgrown plants, husband trimming his prized "cylinder bush", relocating a few other plants to more suitable spots, and starting (or at least planning where and how) on adding and redoing my paths....

It was transformed!!

This garden is so much my happy place!!

Another update to come once I work on the paths and things fill in more (and I clean that poor bird feeder :-/)