George Bailey and my garden...

So, it's the time of year for cleaning up the garden after some winter weather abuse. Yesterday was a drop-dead gorgeous day, clear blue and 60-some degrees. Mostly working in my rear perennial and herb beds, I cut down the dead plants that I left for the birds (ooh, that sounds like a bad offering, I left some seed heads up for the birds to eat.)

We have four Pin Oak trees that deposit their indestructible leaves all winter. There are millions of them this year! I don't know why they seem so much more numerous than in previous years. I've got all the plants down and many of the leaves up, ready for the chipper, then headed for the compost pile.

Uncovering the leaves always (and hopefully) yields the inspiring surprise of seeing old plant friends. (Am I the only one that talks to my plants?) My ever-present yellow lab thinks there's is someone arriving and gets excited, until she remembers it's only me being quirky. I felt like George Bailey at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life." Instead of, "Hello movie house!" I find myself saying, "Hello Virginia Bluebells! Hello Euphorbia! Hello Germander!" And they're the ones saying, "I want to live again."

Mishaps in the garden always seem to happen, but often bring opportunity. While raking up, I ripped up a few Shasta Daisy shoots and roots, so I thought I'd make lemons into lemonade. We have an upcoming Master Gardener plant sale, so I hope to get these little fellows growing and healthy to share. So, I was planting in the greenhouse until dark in the evening.

Now, I've done a lot of things by candlelight in my life, but propogating (plants, not humans) is a new one for me. I don't have electricity or water in the greenhouse, so it's nice to do things the old fashioned way sometimes. Hunky Man came down and took this photo of me potting and wearing his old flannel jacket, having a glass of wine and potting Euphorbia. What's missing is the classical music on the radio. I didn't want to come in and close up shop for the evening!

But eventually, the old back gave out and that wretched alarm clock goes off far too early in the morning. But my soul had a smile on its face as I went to sleep.