News + Updates

Do you see that??  It is the middle of March, people, and there is WEEDING to be done already!?  The nerve!  Didn’t we just get done doing our last fall weeding?  (Although maybe you don’t have weed populations like I do…..)

But hey, I am looking literally at the bright side: not only do weeds like this early spring, but so does tender grass seed, lilacs, crocus, tulips, maples, magnolias…tons of shrubs and perennials are exploding into bloom and leafing out.  No matter how easy this winter was, it’s still a sight for sore eyes.

Welcome back, spring, weeds and all.

Am I the only one?  Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Looking at the bright side of this thus-far virtually snowless winter, since Christmas I have been, gulp, trimming back shrubs and perennials that I didn’t get around to in October and November.   Yikes.  It’s embarrassing to admit.

But it feels so good!  I don’t think I will ever be so far ahead in the springtime as I will be in 2012.  It makes me happy–really happy–so if you have been wondering if it’s OK for the plants, wondering what the neighbors think, etc….don’t!  Get out there and trim away!  The only shrubs to avoid pruning would be the early, early spring bloomers such as lilacs, azaleas, and forsythia.   If you trim them now, you’ll cut off the flowers for spring.  And depending on your point-of-view, you may want to skip pruning your ornamental grasses so you have some winter interest.  I trimmed some that flopped over with the icy conditions we had back at the start of December and left others that were still standing tall, such as the Karl Foerster Reed Grass.  Happy pruning…in January!