Why I Oughta...

Its too early.  Its too early.  Its too early.  For 'Spring cleanup'.  I know that.  You know that.  Everyone knows that.  Doesn't mean that the recent run of warmer weather didn't give me the itch to get out and do something.  I started by pruning a couple of trees.  Then, I started to get bothered by the dried out mopheads of the Vanilla Strawberry Panicle Hydrangea that is on the corner of our garage.  It needed to be cleaned up.   Here, below, is the result.  Tons of long whips with dried flower heads.  Currently stashed on the top of the middle compost bin.  Why there?  Because, I need to clip them down to little pieces and toss them into the left bin so they'll decompose a little bit better/faster/easier. Will this be the only thing I do before it is 'due'?  Not likely.  

One of the 'wins' from last garden season were the three Garden Ghost Artemisia that I planted in the front yard Island Bed along the driveway .  They quickly filled-in/filled-out, provided a nice pop of white to brighten up the bed and were *very useful* in cut flower arrangements.  I bought them from Roy Diblik's nursery up in Wisconsin (Northwind Perennial Farm) and planted them along with a couple of grasses, some annuals and the Korean Maple tree.   Here's a look at one of the MANY arrangements that I used the Garden Ghost plumes in as filler flowers . The provide a tiny bit of Winter interest, but they also have stems that help protect the crown of the plants by trapping leaf litter around the base of the woody plants.  Below is a look at the current state of these Garden Ghost Artemisias planted right next to the driveway: I've talked about it a few times, but between the early snow-fall and the deliberate adoption (at least a little bit more than normal...