I hate spring cleaning.
There, I said it. I feel better now, and can move on.
Despite my misgivings, spring cleaning is almost an inevitable part of life. This includes my outdoor life.
We have a flower garden on our front lawn that we’ve been experimenting with over the last few years. The picture at the top of this post is the black-eyed susans from last year that made their home in this very bed.
This year, it’s all about to change. Well, okay, not all. But some’s about to change.
We made some plant moves, with the biggest one being the relocation of the black-eyed susans to their own separate flower bed (I’ll update you on that in a later post). Then, after a back-breaking morning of weeding, edging, weeding, manuring, and weeding, our flower bed was spring-cleaned to perfection. (Ed. note: our perfection standards are incredibly low.) The before picture was way too embarrassing to show you. Also, I didn’t take a before picture.
Here is where we are starting off this year, with our newly-cleaned-up bed:
You may have noticed some numbers in the above picture. Allow me to share some descriptions of said numbered areas.
1) Daffodils
At least, we think this is what they are. Right now, they are green leaves that look like daffodil leaves. And neither of us can remember what bulbs we planted here. This is part of the waiting game.
2) Spyrea
This dead-looking bush eventually greens up and produces some cute little flowers. He’s very hardy, but he is a bit of a garden hog with his vast bushiness.
3) Tulips
Again, we are assuming here. Similar to the daffodil situation, they at least look like tulip leaves. There’s another one by the blue-topped wellhead (no number provided) that keeps flattening to the ground and popping back up. That’s kind of a fun game to watch unfold, too.
4) Blanket Flowers
We have 2 of these bad boys here. They were getting overcrowded by the big-ass spyrea, so we moved them both away from him to give them some space. They produce some really pretty flowers, so I hope they survive the move.
5) Hosta
No, seriously, there is a hosta there. I trimmed back last year’s dead stalks, and although the picture does not provide this proof, mine own eyeballs did see the little purple shoots poking up out of the ground. Hosta likes his space, too, so we’ll see how he and Blanket get along.
6) Rhododendron
This guy. Man, is Rhodo tough. We have put him through hell and back (not intentionally), and he still hangs around. Last year, he had loads of beautiful pink flowers, and I’m hoping for a repeat. I’m rooting for you, Rhodo.
7) Rock
Yep. It’s granite, which is a type of rock. We have so much granite in our yard, we use it as decorations in our flower beds.
I’ll keep you posted on the plant growth progress as the warm(ish) weather starts to arrive. I noticed that Spyrea has some small green buds, while Rhodo has some nasty-looking colour on his (normally green) leaves. This could be a good year for some, and bad for others.
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