Wednesday Workdays - the Home Stretch, I hope.

Two days of warm - like 70 degree - weather ... in a row ... over a weekend?  "Not possible in February", you say.  "Very possible!" and that's what exactly what we had in Central Virginia over the past weekend.

Plants perked up.  The grass perked up.  I perked up!  It was a great opportunity to get out and dig a bit in the dirt - one of my favorite activities and one I had been sorely missing for months [altho it seemed like years!].

With lots of rain and snow this winter, the ground was damp and workable, but warm enough that it was safe to walk in the beds without either sinking or compacting too much.

So back to the front bed I went - spading fork and wheelbarrow in hand.  The final step in renovating this bed was to dig out the old St. John's Wort.  Altho it was a great plant to anchor the bed more than 10 years ago, it had become overgrown and just too large for it's spot.

[In retrospect, it was always the wrong plant for that area.  I fell in love with a bank of it years ago and wanted it for my yard.  It is only recently that it occurred to me that the very things that I loved on a long, sloping bank are the things that made it wrong for the front of a bed... its size, its tendency to spread to hold the bank, and it's thickness.  None of that really worked with azaleas, dogwood and bulbs.]

 After one day's work. Two hours was all I could manage.

Two days later and several loads to the trashcans - had to borrow space in two neighbors' cans to get it all out - and I now have a cleaner slate to finish this bed.  Have ordered Hinoki grass for the corner and am thinking about a swath of the "true" geraniums and some more spring bulbs.  Then I will be done.

 It's time to find a new home for the security sign!

This bed has been on my "to do" list for at least three seasons and I have slowly made some progress with it.  I think this is the year!