Spring Cleaning

The last week of March usually brings warm, almost summer like weather, perfect for the long-awaited spring cleaning.

It felt strange this year to find a reliable pattern in the middle of emptiness and uncertainty.

I put the favorable weather to good use and finished the garden cleaning hours before the weather turned on me again.

The plants had grown significantly unde
eath the blanket of winter debris but I'm afraid that I will have to stick with the seasoned perennials this year, at least that's how things look right now.

April's Fool chill came along to thwart my valiant efforts to start annuals from seed, followed by a late freeze, weeks past the last day of frost in this area. Of course I had to jinx the weather and its reliable nature, and there went my young plantings. The tomatoes are still holding on for dear life, but all the eggplants gave up the ghost.

The direct sow annuals might see better luck, since they were still waiting to emerge from the ground and thus were protected from the freeze.

The squirrels made a feast of the calendulas, which would have been fine otherwise, them being cold weather annuals and all, and the zinnias found the chilly streak intolerable and collapsed in protest.

A gardener just can't catch a break.