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Working in the garden – Spring cleaning

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Well I managed to finally get out into the Garden on Sunday. It was a lovely day and it was high time that I got out there to tidy up my garden and begin pruning the roses.

Last Autumn I didn’t even manage to put my garden to bed. By this I mean I didn’t do the usual winter protection. I was just too ill. So I’d have to say that I really haven’t done much in my garden at all since perhaps last September and at that time it was mainly only watering the garden.

That’s 7 months of not doing any garden work. Do you know how my body is feeling right now?

I was outside for about five hours. Once I got started I couldn’t make myself stop. Surprisingly I felt pretty good while I was working away. However once I got back inside I began to notice that my back was stiffening up. Now the bottom of my left foot is numb. I guess I must have a pinched nerve in my back! Oh the damage I do to myself when I garden. I tell you – it’s an extreme sport for me.

There are so many plants growing it’s unbelievable! Some are way ahead of themselves. For instance, my daffodils rarely make an appearance before mid-May, yet I have two that are up and blooming and more to come. Some of my supposedly later blooming Tulips are also up and about to bloom. What else was growing well? Strawberry plants, raspberry canes, several clematis, helebores, columbine, monkshood, toad lilies, regular lilies, oriental lilies, several types of tulip, hyacinth, muscari, lavender, Chionodoxa, snow drops, sedum, astilbe, geranium, new york asters, phlox, hostas, trilliums, peonies, rudbeckia, honeysuckle vines and on and on. I’m sure I’ve missed some of the perennials that I saw out there.

I believe that most of the roses will end up surviving. There’s a lot of dead branches but there’s life in the lower areas. Some are quite hardy and are already leaving out at the tips and upper branches. I didn’t survey each rose because I was trying to systematically work my way through the garden one area at a time.

I think I managed to tidy up half of the back garden beds. If my body cooperates I’ll go back outside later today and try to finish up the back. Then I’ll have to do the side of the house, the front garden and boulevard. Oh my … it’s a lot of work!






Oh those Bleeding Hearts

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bleeding hearts 6

I believe I took this photo in early June last year.

My bleeding hearts, Dicentra spectabilis, aren’t even up yet, and they likely won’t come up until the end of April or beginning of May, but once they begin to grow they will grow fast and should be blooming by the end of May or early June.

I’ve always heard that Bleeding Hearts don’t get very tall but mine often grow close to three feet tall and spread out almost three feet in diameter. I have to stake mine so that they don’t flop – perhaps that’s why mine look taller than most that I see?

So far the only Spring flowers that have bloomed are my crocus’ but I expect that others will follow very soon, perhaps by next weekend if I’m lucky.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

The many benefits of Gardening

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Have you ever sat back and thought about how good gardening is for us in general?

There are obvious benefits to gardening, for example if you grow fruit or vegetables in your garden you have access to fresh fruit and veggies throughout the growing season. The produce your grow is so much fresher than what we can purchase in grocery stores isn’t it? Not to mention that it likely lacks harmful pesticides and other chemicals that could be bad for our health.

Less obvious perhaps are the social, psychological, and physiological benefits of gardening. Maintaining a garden, whether it’s one that produces food for your family, contains a mix of flowering and leafy plants or a mix of both is good exercise, gets us outdoors for some fresh air, and allows us to spend quality time with our family or friends when we are working in the garden, or sitting back and enjoying the view from the patio.

My garden is many things to me. I spend several hours working in the garden from Spring though to Autumn. I know that I get a fair amount of exercise while working in the garden.

When I’m out working in the garden my neighbors often come out to work on their own yards, or simply just to say hello. Therefore I get a chance to get to know my neighbors better and to create a sense of community within my neighborhood.

When I’m not working in the garden, I can often be found either gazing out the window at the lovely flowers, or sitting at my patio table enjoying a drink or pleasant meal with my husband and or friends and relatives.

My garden is also one of the first places that I head after a long night of working as a Nurse in the ER. There is nothing like walking through the garden in the early morning hours to see which new flowers are about to bloom and smelling the heavenly scent of rose perfume wafting through the air. A few minutes in the garden after a long night of taking care of patients and perhaps saving a few lives and I’m almost magically de-stressed. It’s wonderful.

I also take great pride in how my garden looks and I’m very pleased when people stop on the sidewalk as they are walking by our house to look at the flowers in the front yard, or even to stare down our driveway to see the beginning of our backyard paradise. If I happen to be outdoors when my garden catches their eye I usually don’t mind talking to them about the plants I grow, or listening to their compliments.

Why do you garden? What benefits do you derive from gardening?

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