Today was the first decent weather day in quite a while, where I didn't have to do other things, so I dragged myself out.
I started with pruning the patio clematis, ETOILE VIOLETTE, which absolutely had to get done. (I was actually surprised when I *did* get it done, fairly quickly, without too much difficulty, as it's in a bit of a tricky place to get at. Go me.)
I put off starting on the roses (more on that later) to go do a quick Near 40 survey of the garden.
Some predator has once again left two large piles of Predator Poop on the pool deck.
Top choices are bobcats, coyotes, or mountain lions. I looked up an article on mountain lion scat to see if it could be a match, and that is a possibility. (I relayed all of this to DH (currently out of town) on chat, and told him that we need a camera to see what it is. He helpfully said to be careful gardening, otherwise I'll end up as cat food.
)
Chasing down one of my yard waste bushels (blown around in the recent storm), I realized that I had meant to hack back the salvia encroaching on the PCI path (there are some PCIs *on* that path, others in a raised area at the end of it, off our deck). I had gotten distracted with cold weather/holidaze so that job never got done, so I started work on that.
While I was in that area, I noted that I had those old planters of TB seedlings which got shuffled around (put in the wrong place by my garden helper) and never dealt with (holidaze etc. again), so I dead-leafed them and shuffled them around some more. I'm going to have to either individually pot those seedlings up, or punt them, but right now I'm in no hurry.
Somewhere in there I noted that the charming but non-native invasive Bermuda Buttercup is in bloom (in my planting areas, not on the creek beds where it properly belongs
), and was smothering some of my in-ground SDBs (in a raised bed next to the house) and some of the PCIs (those out in that raised area off the deck, which actually *is* a top of a creek bank). I pulled a ton of it off the SDBs (mostly TEAGAN but also BLUE OASIS), but I still have to tackle the ones on the PCIs. That will wait until after DH is back in town, as that PCI area being smothered is somewhat of a mobility challenge for me these days. (If I trip and fall out there and can't get up, and there is no one here to notice my absence, "cat food" becomes more of a possibility than I like.)
The rest of the gardening time was spent on dead-leafing and weeding iris pots, shuffling bushels of yard waste to the larger bin, and starting work on the roses. I limited myself to hacking on the carpet roses, as they are encroaching on the pathways (again) and are easily accessible. (Accessibility is key... I am trying to garden "safely" while I'm home alone, as though such a thing were possible.) I barely made a dent there, before coming in.
I brought up my AUTUMN IVORY (one of the few BBs that I have) to the patio, where I am hoping to see it bloom this spring.
I found a naked rhizome on the patio, clearly dug from one of the pots (those squirrels again), but I couldn't tell which. I jammed it back into the RIBBONS AND LACE pot. I may get a surprise this spring or next.
The early-blooming unregistered PCI SILVER MOON has already started, something that I noted while pruning the clematis (it sits right under it).
I don't recall seeing any other irises in bud or bloom, though perversely some of the daylilies have stalks with buds. (Silly things... it's too cold for the blooms to open or have proper color!)
Finally, the 10-10-10 fertilizer has still not arrived. There may be some in the sheds (a bit of hassle to get in and out of these days), so I'll give it a few more days to arrive before looking there. The irises can surely wait that long, and there is clearly no lack of things needing to be done in the garden.
