Out In The Garden

Today the sun came out, and even if it was just hazy sun, I decided to pull weeds in this flower bed. I gave myself an hour and I got the whole bed done. I will be trimming the hedges another day, when I have my shredder out.

You can see that this bed is now all cleaned up. I can keep it that way by hula hoe-ing a couple times a week. There is some ground cover that is growing and it can get into everything and cover up whatever is in its way, but it has pretty flowers and is very easy to pull out. It dies back in when we have our high summer heat, but comes back with no problems. Actually, it comes up all over the place--but, I like it!

Out In The Garden

Today I was able to work in the yard for three hours, and my focus was on this section that's up against the house. I dug out 10 crape myrtle "shrubs," which were actually trees that came up from the roots when we took out a crape myrtle tree several years ago. I never tried to dig them out, I just cut them down each year. I didn't want them, so I finally dug them out. I also removed several clusters of bulbs that keep multiplying, that I didn't like. Plus, I removed 4 Lenten Roses. The sidewalk goes up to the front door of my house, and I plan to put in a small pond just past the post that can be seen on the left in the picture. The dead-looking things in the background are my ferns. They get burned by the frost each year, but come back better than ever each spring. As I was digging some of the crape myrtles that were in amongst the ferns, I found that there were lots of new little ferns starting to grow. These ferns were here when we bought this house in 1986, so you can see that they are a hardy plant. They do need to be in the shade, though, as too much summer sun will burn them. [I almost forgot to take a picture of where I was working, but remembered after I had started digging].

Out In The Garden

Today I spent another 3 1/2 hours working in the yard. I pruned 7 of my neighbor's roses and 3 of my own. I removed all of the weeds that were growing in the sidewalk cervices, especially along the curb. I also pulled a lot of weeds out of the flower beds. So much to do!

If you want to know how to prune roses, the Weekend Gardener has some good information.

Out In The Garden

I'm off to a good start! I worked in my back yard today for 3 1/2 hours. I was able to get all of my fruit trees pruned, my asparagus ferns cut down (see picture), and two of my roses pruned. I was surprised to see that one of my asparagus plants was poking three little heads above ground--they aren't suppose to be up until the first part of March. The asparagus is planted on the south side of my house so it might be a little warmer than the rest of the yard.