Winter Garden Clean-up

hawk on early morning watch

Today was not quite as warm as the previous couple of days, yet it was decent enough to get back outside to continue my gardening, my cleaning of my perennial beds.

I was in a sweatshirt, but the heavy overcast day was a bit raw.  Still doable I told myself.  I knew I would be much more productive working outside than I would be inside the house where tons of housework faced me.  Rain is in the near forecast, so I determined my outside time was precious.

I worked about two hours cutting dead stems and cutting back over-ambitious plants (the ones that not only grow in their allotted space but also extend into other plants territory).  This is the perfect time to reduce plant sizes because I am not as aware of how much live plant I am cutting off which I hate to do. Come spring, the plants will leaf out as if nothing had been removed. A win- win situation for my psyche.

two hours worth of plant waste - Onnie and Missy looking for a handout since I was in the area

I also spent a little time in the Snowball training department.  Snowball has a mind of his own and I am trying to convince him that my commands take precedence over his mind.  I did get him to come to me twice when called, so I feel I made some progress.  Buddy listens to me without question.  One obedient dog out of two ain’t bad.  But, I will continue to work on getting that up to two.

I have to admit that my garden has never looked this good in a January.  I hope I will be able to do a once over all the gardens before the spring weeds take over. 

Now, that would be an accomplishment.