In an effort to simplify my life, gardening will be my 2011 focus for my blog. It will read more like a list of accomplishments in gardening, similar to the one in my sidebar from a couple years back. Of course it will have photos too; taking pictures of plant life is irresistible to me. So here it begins:
1-1-11 In frigid temps, under crystal clear skies, I cut down the Paul's Himalayan Musk Rambling Rose and wrestled with the 30 to 50 foot long brambles, cutting them down to size. The root stock will be dug up when the ground warms.
1-16-11 The Pineapple Express is here! Today it got up to 54 and there was no rain for most of the day. The wind has been blowing nonstop. At one brief point this afternoon the clouds actually parted and I saw blue sky. I cut the epimedium leaves down to the ground and the snowberry and native spiraea to half their size. I moved a peony shrub to a sunnier and more raised position to better appreciate it's nodding red flowers come spring. I severed a main root so I suppose I may be punished with no blooms at all. I also transplanted a Japanese maple from a plastic pot into a larger ceramic pot. This tree will be Anna Rae's someday, when she decides to make roots somewhere. It began as a volunteer seedling from a tree she climbed as a little girl.
1-29-11 The snowdrops dangle their white blooms above muddy flower beds. They have been up for 2 weeks now. The tulips, crocuses and daffodils are spears of green 3 and 4 inches above the ground. Today I stuffed more of the rose brambles into the yard waste container. A pile of miscellaneous branches await the next pickup. This every other week business is for those with tiny, easy to maintain yards. Our needs are considerably more demanding. Buds of the native shrubs shine a clean lime green, ready to leaf out at the tiniest suggestion of sunlight. It has been so consistently gray this month. The threat of snow seems to be truly behind us. I put my snowmen back into the attic to rest till next December. The white lights are still on the deck; they brighten these dark, mid winter nights.
