A Labor Of Love has begun...

Spirea full of Oak Leaves

Spirea, Oak Leaves Removed!

Yesterday I started the process of cleaning my garden, I say started because this will take a while, I got one section done & it took several hours - those who garden will understand, those who don't might think I didn't get much done…

Smaller Veronica - pre-splitting

I have Oak trees in the front near the portion of the garden I was working on, and the Spirea were full of Oak Leaves… I have 2 large & 1 small in the section I tackled yesterday.  

Smaller Veronica - post-splitting

Also full of Oak Leaves were 2 very large Russian Sage, and 2 overgrown Veronica - the Veronica were especially touchy to clean since the new growth is tender & the old growth still needed to be removed.

One of 3 Day Lilies, pre-split (3 parts)

Post-split

There were 3 very overgrown Day Lilies (the short variety) that needed to be split.  The two smaller (one of these is pictured) were split into 3 parts, the largest into 4… and they are still sizable plants (but manageable).

Wheel Barrow for Transport

Transplanted into the Woods

I transplanted portions of the Day Lilies and the Veronica into the edges of my woods.

Russian Sage, pre-split.

Post-split

One of my Russian Sage had spread itself too wide, had to use the Sawzall to get through its roots (the shovel just wouldn't do).
















Add to all this the typical Spring task of pulling/clipping off the old dead growth & adding in a fresh layer of cedar mulch (7 bags in this area alone), and I spent more than 4 hours working in the yard.  By the time I'm done with the yard I'll end up using 65-75 bags of mulch, so I'm roughly 10% done with Spring prep.

First section of garden, finished!

Some plants haven't grown enough to show in this picture, this section will be quite filled in when everything has come up…