It must be spring

Where are all of these bruises coming from?

Hey, is that a splinter in my finger?

Why won't this cut on my thumb heal up?

I must have some of the ugliest hands in Colorado right about now...ground in dirt, cracked and dry from all of the washing and washing and washing. There isn't enough lotion in the world to save my hands from diapers, plants, dirt and weeds.

These hands, you see, are busy.

I've finally cleared out all 4 of my raised beds in the backyard.

The lump of green in the lower right corner is a volunteer potato. Woo! Free food!

I haven't added compost and I haven't turned them over, but I have ripped out all of the "temporarily" heeled in plants that were popped into one of the beds there...um...3 or 4 years ago. Some of them I decided to place into the bed under the cherry tree, since that soil is easy to work and all of the annuals from last season are dead dead dead.

After the winter debris is torn away and after the new plants are popped in, but before the crabgrass is cut down, the bed looks like hell. Don't worry! It will get better! I might even mulch it this year!*

The rest I pitched onto the compost pile after determining that sometimes you really do have too much of a good thing. (Tip: if you want a spring blooming, easy, xeric plant, go for catmint. That stuff will grow just about anywhere and will spread over time. Not as crazy as lamb's ear, but it is prolific. Nice as a groundcover for when you just want to put something in and forget about it. Bees love it!)

After relocating about 17 catmint, 5 Johnson Blue geranium, a checkerbloom (Wait, it was in a 3" pot all of these years? Yow! Lookit those roots coming through the bottom!), 2 Russian sedum (So far. I've got more!) and several plants of Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' and Agastache 'Purple Pygmy' that survived the winter in the container by my front door.

Close up of over wintered Golden Jubilee and newly relocated catmint and agastache.

I figured that if they were tough enough to handle my complete winter neglect, they'd do fine in the garden bed.

I even took time to fill in the hens and chicks pot. Again.

Plants added: one sempervivum 'Baronesse', a sempervivum 'Hardy Boy' that I pulled into 3 pieces and Sedum spurium 'Tricolor'. Now I just need to top it off with some decorative rocks.

They might be tough, but they're not tough enough to handle no snow cover and no watering and freezing conditions. Some did, though, which is always mind boggling. I'm thinking about switching everything in pots to sempervivums just so I can avoid watering ever again. Who needs flowers?!

Sempervivum: the container planting of choice for people with no free time!

I've turned the compost pile twice and frightened away a small group of mice.

Dandelions are taking over my backyard. Crabgrass is taking over the front yard. My xeric plants are waiting for their spring clean up. My tiny tomato plants need pricking out and potting up.

I have no free time except that which can be squeezed in between naps and sleep.

I've already gotten my first sunburn of the season.

Yup. It must be spring. I am officially insane once again, due to planting fever.

In case you're wondering where I am, I'm off collecting more scratches, bruises, splinters and dirt.




* This is what real gardening looks like. Not the stuff you see in glossy gardening mags or on TV, done by professionals with crews. This is what it looks like when only one person is responsible for getting it all done in their spare time. Your garden can look just like Martha Stewart's just as soon as you have the same money and gardening crew that she has. Reset your expectations!