Clean-up!

Good morning, Wren!

Here in the Hudson Valley region, we've had a lovely spring thaw. The huge mounds of slushy snow are slowly melting away. After yesterday's temps in the low 50s, it dropped below freezing last night and the ground was hardened again this morning. But by the time I finished my walk around 9 am, it was softening again. It will go up to 48 degrees today, NOAA tells me. So, despite there still being some snow lurking in my yard, I'm going to attempt my first spring clean-up.

There are daffodils, crocuses and tulips poking up their leaves, so I'll gently remove the leaves and trash and other accumulated detritus of our urban winter. I'll also gently prune some of the late blooming shrubs, like the caryopteris, the hydrangea, and the roses.

I have plenty of seeds I gathered last fall to sort through, and I'll be sending them off to you this week: some deep purple bachelor buttons, hollyhocks in various shades of pink, Chinese forget-me-nots in deep blue, and zinnias in all colors. I hope they grow beautifully for you!

The catalogs keep arriving, of course. My faves are Wayside Gardens, Bluestone Perennials, Gilbert H. Wild (great prices and wide selection of daylilies and peonies!), Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (here is their blog), Park Seeds, and Brent and Becky's Bulbs. For hardy plants real cheap (like creeping phlox, coreopsis, or dianthus) I also like ordering the 1-cent specials from Spring Hill. I've also found some great plant sellers on Ebay (after a great deal of hit or miss!); my favorite seller is a retired botany professor who sells really nice perennial shrubs and hosta. I've gotten nice hydrangeas, lilacs and a flowering quince from him.

I love to go through them and circle things. Since we'll be moving soon, and we're not 100% set on a new house (though hope to have it narrowed down by this week), I can't quite bring myself to order anything yet, though I am also planning more plantings at Brushwood this spring, especially some more shade plants like astilbes and hostas.

Speaking of which, I'm heading out there next weekend with my friend Krissy. Weather permitting, I hope to do some clean-up there, too, to allow the spring plants some more light and air. I planted plenty of tulips there last year. as well as a few daffodils and hyacinths in pale blue and bright orange! When we head out there for Beltane there should be plenty of colorful blooms to greet us.
(Fire shrine garden in spring 2009 at Brushwood Folklore Center)