Gardening season started today...

Despite the very cold weather, R and I started our spring clean up. Enough snow fell last night that they had to plow the roads. By the time we started cleaning up at least 75% of the snow was gone. Hopefully by tomorrow, it will ALL be melted away.

Here's R using the blower to blow the leaves out of the lavender plants and rose bushes. He assured me he DID NOT step on any tulips. LOL While he used the blower, I trimmed the rose bushes back.

We also checked on the sycamore and tulip trees we planted last year and they all have buds. The fruit trees also all have buds with the nectarine trees having the largest buds. I also trimmed all the fruit trees of any dead twigs or ill placed spurs. I think they have finally gotten to the point where I can really start shaping them.

I have 4 Paw Paw trees coming the first week of April. I hope the weather is warm enough to plant them at that time. The ground is still frozen in the area where I want to put them. I bought 2 different varieties and from two different growers.

I decided to grow poppies out by the street along the fence. I've tried roses but the salt spray from the road kills them. I thought poppies would be a good choice since they are a large flower and will easily reseed. I've purchased about 10 different varieties in the white, pink, purple, lavender, and blue. I'm really looking forward to seeing the blue poppies bloom. The photo shows it as a very vibrant blue.

Tomorrow we have to pick up all the piles of leaves we raked up today. We did notice that we were rewarded this spring because of the good fall clean up we did last year. Those blisters were not wasted.