It's been a mild winter so far. Snow has come only a few times, just to cover the ground and then melt away. I should be grateful for the thaws, as I am still working on that whole garden-clean-up-before-winter thing.
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| Don't come up yet, daffodils! |
Towards the end of last year I didn't blog or even manage to get out in the garden very often. End of the year chores were left undone, and the garden left to just do its own thing (more than normal, anyway.) Life was too busy and full, full, full. And then too empty. Last fall, both of our beloved cats, one after the other, were diagnosed with lymphoma. Both of them ended up passing away shortly before Christmas.
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| I keep expecting to see these two little furbabies around... |
Back to the topic of gardening (who's cutting those onions? *sniff*), we did manage to get a few fall chores done. With surprisingly superb timing, I got the last of my fall bulbs planted right before the first real snow of the season hit.
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| one of those beak, wintery days |
In fall we also accomplished the much-needed task of moving our clump of young white birch trees out of a spot that was too hot for it. In just one year, the roots of the birches had spread far beyond their branches, and it was unexpectedly quite the chore to move it. (After digging out and moving that clump, poor Mr. Red House was very glad to go back to the office on Monday. He said it was far less work than helping me in the garden.)
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| trying to dig out the roots of the small birch clump |
I now find myself solidly in the middle of the winter season with the fall clean up continuing sporadically on mild January days. Thanks to those January thaws, however, many of the garden beds have finally been cleaned up and a lot of the fall gardening chores (the ones that are going to get done, anyway) have finally been accomplished...
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| The local robins volunteered to clean up my winterberries for me. |
...that is, except for my greenhouse cleanup.
I have to admit that at this point I am rather afraid to even look in my greenhouse, unsure of what I might find in there after all the tomato and pepper plants were abandoned and left to fend for themselves for the winter.
I should probably get on that.
