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Out of the Cave and into the Sunshine!

© Carol Wallace

I am sitting on thorns as I type this. My hands look as though I had just adopted a new kitten. My hair is littered with tiny twigs and green things, and my yard (which, luckily, I can't see because it is now dark) looks a bit like it has been bombed.

What this means is that spring clean-up has begun.

Lady Barbara, our editor for Weeds and Wild Things, termed it "The Best Easter Egg Hunt of All Times" and I have to agree - when I finally do make it down through all the accumulated debris of fall and winter I am finding all kinds of delicious surprises (including an actual egg or two from our band of roving hens.) Plants that aren't supposed to be hardy here that survived with flying color. Plants that have increased beyond my wildest expectations. And plants that I had planned to compost that kindly departed without my help.

My husband, on the other hand, asked me whose bright idea it was to save all the clean-up 'til now. "Is this the way it should be done," he asked suspiciously, "or did you just save it because you knew you'd want something to do in early spring?"

His attitude might be explained by the fact that he is NOT down on his knees making discoveries. He's down on HIS knees picking up the debris I scatter so profligately so he can feed it to the chipper-shredder. After a long winter's nap, that chipper-shredder is mighty hungry.

When I first emerged from my winter cave three days ago I almost headed back in. Having tons of room to create lots of gardens is wonderful - until you contemplate them for the first time in spring and realize all that has to be done.

I do tend to leave the perennials standing through winter in all of their shriveled finery. In our climate those withered leaves act as a mulch to protect tender plants - and so to me this is the way it should be. In autumn I am still too busy cramming the plants from Fall sales into the ground to worry about clean-up duty. So in spring I am faced with about an acre's worth of things needing grooming, pruning, raking, weeding and tending - then dividing and transplanting or potting up to give to neighbors. It all looks quite undo-able. And it all looks quite glorious - this is the start of gardening season!