Spring is here???

Well here we are on day 6 of spring (?) and as you can tell by the above picture of Pittsgrove, winter has decided to stick around longer than most of us would like and for the past few days has caused havoc across a good portion of the US. This time last year, we were relishing temperatures in the 60's and working daily in the garden beds. Yesterday was the first time in ages that John and I ventured outdoors here for any length of time beyond gathering kindling for our wood stove. It wasn't the cold, but the accompaning wind that cut through to the bone that kept us from our chores. We cleaned up more winter debris and started preparing the vegetable garden, but planting has still been postponed to some yet unknown date in the future more amenable to the sowing of seeds and tender seedlings.

This is still the time of year, if weather permits, to get out to your garden beds to finish any cleanup that wasn't finished during our equally uncooperative fall. It's much easier to get those pesky maple leaves and dead weeds removed rather than waiting for warmer weather which then finds all your perennials suddenly appearing and growing like Topsy making your job much more tedious.Whip out those clippers and cut back any perennials that you didn't get to earlier.Your iris won't look very attractive with a heap of brown leaves lying next to them and if you cut away the brown leaves from your helleborus you'll be greeted by some beautiful blossoms waiting to kiss the sky.

Helleborus last spring

So buck up, bundle up, and clean up those flower beds for spring is surely on the horizon. At least that's what the calender keeps telling us.

Think positive thoughts!
Cheryl