Fall Yard Clean-up Before Spring

While the eastern half of the country huddles under blankets for warmth and sees nothing but white through its windows, in my part of the world we have sunshine, no snow and temperatures running well above normal. Obviously, our country is suffering from a split personality. This week, our rain has gone away and sunshine has prevailed, urging me to get out of my chair and head outside to do the flower bed cleanup that should have been done in the fall – and to remove the pine needles that winter’s wind has blown down to shelter the flowers that will bless our spring and summer.

Plan is to attack one small bed or portion of a bed at a time, because these years myself is not willing to spend many hours of the day on my knees or bending over. This day’s project was the south end of the slope bed, which looked like this before I started

Disgusting, isn’t it? In my defense, I leave the stems of flowers with seed heads over the winter for the birds – the rest of it? Attribute all that to the fact that when October gets here I grow lazy and this past October I was traveling. Excuses? Yes.

First, I pulled the dead annual flowers from the tub planter, for which Lily thanked me. She did not like perching there when the pokey brown stalks were covering the cushion of the soft soil.

Not long into the work of clearing, which I seem to end up doing on my knees even though I have brought a rake with me, I was given a gift

by a girl who thought it would do me good to play for awhile.

As I pulled out pine needles, grasses and clover – which I have been fighting for as many years as this bed has existed and wonder if this will be the year I finally wave the white flag – I found gifts. Earthworms not yet ready to awaken

tiny little daylily sprouts

then there were my helpers.

The more I cleared, the more treasures I found, all very very early this year. Daffodils halfway to their full growth

iris whose rhizomes have risen above the soil – maybe time for me to haul in some topsoil? Or dig and divide. This will require some thinking about.

I have reached the end for this day – I have cleared the part of the bed where the daffodils bloom and created a large pile of debris which will need to be hauled to the burn pile on another day. Always, I have my companions, my helpers, my “let’s lay on the green sprouts and see if they will spring back to life when we leave” girls.

On my way back into the house, I notice that even the little willow bush has green sprouts. I shall do a daily dance for the early spring to continue and no hard frosts to destroy the future of all these green gifts.

And there are the pots of spring color that I decided on my last trip to town I must have – the gray rainy week called for some bright spots. These girls are residing in their temporary home – once the flower bed cleanup has been done and space has been cleared they will be moved to a permanent home.

Enough – this day provided enough.