Thursday, April 1, 2010

1st Day of Spring Clean Up for Me

DH has been out raking the yard for the past week, but today was my first day out in the gardens.

I worked for one hour and removed 5 wheelbarrow loads. I think that's a pretty good beginning. This is one area I raked...just the front section.

You can't even tell, can you? All my work goes unnoticed!


Just to prove it, here's a wheelbarrow load ready to be dumped:


I was quite dismayed to see that this small rockwall area still has orange poppies coming up. I've been trying to kill them off for the past two years! They are persistent little devils!

I will keep trying and I will eventually be successful.

What really excited me today was this in the backyard rockwall garden:

You're not excited?

How about a close up? The ones in the front had a little rock on top of them. I removed it and they will straighten out with a few days of sunshine.

O.K. I can see where most people may not be overly excited, but I am ecstatic because these are the new tulips I planted last fall--the Rai Parrot tulips.

Remember these flamboyant beauties?

If the deer eat these tender new shoots, I swear I am going to throw myself on the ground and cry!

I gave them a good dose of deer repellent and I will continue to do so until they bloom. Deer repellent does not always work. Deer are evil, evil creatures to gardeners. They can destroy dozens of plants in just one gluttonous night.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

8 comments:

  1. I sure hope that the deer stay away..don't want you to throw yourself on the ground..grin
    That's a lot of work you've done on your yard Zoey..hope you reward yourself with a massage for your poor back:)
    Looks like spring is really here!
    Word verification: anest..any birds building their nests already? smile

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  2. Hi Betty,
    no nests in my yard yet, but I do hope I get one that I can watch. It's been a few years since I've had one close by.

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  3. We started the clean up around March 20th-one day and that was it so far. Between the rain and this lousy illness, the yard is in bad shape. My holly bushes and hedges were seriously munched on by the deer-first time we can remember. The holly may have to be cut down. I wish you well with your tulips!

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  4. Happy Easter to you and yours, dear Zoey!! Having had Corey home the last few days and making my Easter dinner yesterday, today I am relaxing and catching up with my blogging friends:-)

    I need to clean out my faerie garden, as well as my flowerbeds at the front and back of the house. Never have done it this early but there's always a first time! lol I can well imagine how excited you were to see your new Rai Parrot tulips starting to shoot out of the ground!! My crocuses are all in bloom and the tulips and daffodils are not far behind. xoxo

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  5. lots of hard work....love the tulips

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  6. Ooooh, I'm excited to see how that Rai tulip turns out.

    I was walking through my garden the other day and completely forgot what I planted where... until I remembered that I took a tip from you last year and saved all the bulb bags in a binder with notes on where I stuck them. Yay!

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  7. Yay, spring is here!

    I am looking forward to your tulips!

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  8. "I'm sorry to hear the deer are giving you such a hard time. I've been using havahart's deer off, and it's been keeping the deer away. The label says it lasts for 3 months, so I barely have to apply this stuff.
    Here's the repellent I use. It should help:
    http://www.deeroff.com/advantage"

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