There’s no point in pretending I enjoy spring cleaning the garden. It is a hard task, indeed. Cleaning up fallen branches and debris is not an enjoyable job, and there are dead annuals everywhere that remained over the winter. And my perennials are looking pretty ugly. I don’t prune back my perennials in the fall; perennials actually prefer to be left standing through the winter, for extra protection. My shrubby plants with woody stems, such the buddleia need to be cut back, because they only bloom on new branches, and all my roses need to be pruned. Then comes the mulching and fertilizing and the diving and transplanting part of the deal… hard, but as spring sets in my spirit revives, the wait have been long enough…
"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want -- oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" (Mark Twain)
