Let the Gardening Begin

My gardens are a mess.

 

Quite frankly, I was a bit amiss in keeping all the beds and plants up to snuff last season.  I was just plain lazy. So, the ramifications are catching up with me this season.

 

Happily, this year is much different.  I think I have already done more weeding and trimming in a few nice spring days than I had all of last year…the entire year.

 

Therefore, I am not only over joyed but I have more incentive to keep that pace throughout the growing season.

 

I am not working in an organized manner.  I see something that needs clipping here…I clip it.  I see something that needs cutting back there...I cut it back.  This, of course, is not the usual routine for me.  I usually weed and trim one section, one bed at a time.  Maybe that is my miscalculation.  Willy nilly seems to work better and I am enjoying, not lamenting, every moment.  I will stay the course of no course and see where I end.

 

I hope I will end with a better maintained garden and one that is more productive in terms of blooms, scents and overall beauty.

 

One planting, really 12 plants which I hit extremely hard this season, was my miniature barberry shrubs.  Miniature they are not.  Or, more accurately, were not.  They had reached a height of between four and six feet.  

 

In the years since planting these 12 barberries in what was to be a formal ‘knot’ garden, I would trim back the rebellious branches, trim the height a bit and that was it.  I thought about doing the same this year.  Then, I decided I would experiment and cut back two of the 12 to six- inch stumps and see if they would sprout.

At that point, I got really crazy.  I had Glenn take a chain saw to each one.  I decided to cut all 12 down and I hoped all 12 would sprout back.

 

I think the paper wasps are also mad at me...notice the large nest (top left of photo) in a still standing (for the moment) barberry

freshly cut barberry displays this brilliant yellow color

I will keep you posted. To date, it seems like all 12 stubs have developed buds which is a good sign that they are still alive. 

 

Of course, Sam and Omie (my long-term resident mockingbirds) are a bit miffed with me.  Those barberries were their favorite nesting site in the yard as the thorns provided just the right amount of protection needed against our three cats. 

 

The holly shrubs would be a suitable alternative.  Maybe Sam and Omie will think so, too.