it feels like it —

so much so that I again went out to clean some of the garden beds. It is a balmy 65° on March 09 in the Northeast.

As I filled a barrel with leaves and dead branches (we have compost piles in the back of our yard and think we can let go of some), I picked a white hydrangea — leftover from last summer and devoid of color after weathering an eclectic winter. Eclectic because we had early snow, in late fall | early winter, then none, but had frigid temperatures, intense winds, and moderate weather in between.

weed | ‘wēd = a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth especially: one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants

I dug up weeds, which I believe came into our garden with mulch %&#@!, and also dug up black-eyed Susans. Will dig up more tomorrow, probably all. The bleeding hearts, I think + hope, are safe (aren’t they always?), but the forget-me-nots and some of the lovely peonies, as well as other flowers we have planted in that one bed, are ‘gone’, swallowed up by the gorgeous black-eyes Susans — which were not so gorgeous last year.  From what I gather, they have a disease.

so off with their heads!

Actually, off with them period. Although the Susans look beautiful in the photograph above, they ended up gobbling up the other flowers — I noticed it a bit late — and then their stems and leaves turned purple and black. The flowers were bright and colorful, but the rest of them were quite unsightly.

. . .

Ok, so the Susans are all gone, I pray; experimental greenhouse cleaned up a bit (definitely a story for another day, and one that could gain momentum before next fall); backyard flower and herb beds neater too. If we get another gift of warm weather tomorrow, I may clean the vegetable beds. We have never started cleaning our yard this early. And I don’t think it’s strictly because of the weather (although that encourages) because we’ve been decluttering inside too. Plus, picking up and cutting now will make the actual work of readying to plant and the planting quicker and less strenuous, as the ground will be CLEAN + READY.

I had never gardened before, not until a few years ago, but it’s such a part of me (us, really) now. It reminds me of my grandfather, he is a constant in my life, even though I never gardened with him, but it meant so much to him that I kind of connect with him. Get it. Sometimes, I wish he could see it. I love tending, photographing, watching, and harvesting the gardens … the only thing I do not like is dealing with them when they are diseased or gone wrong. And quite often, I don’t feed them properly. How sad. If it were a person, I would never neglect it so. Or would I?