Between the Seasons

Now that it's the last day of February it should be okay to think about spring, right? It doesn't help to get too far ahead of yourself up here in the frozen north, there's still a good month of snow and cold to go but we are a lot closer to the end than the beginning. Winter's not really that bad, but I definitely have a love/hate relationship with it, ha! Sometimes I wonder why I've acquired so many snowflake decorations when there's so much of the real stuff outside? This crystal snowflake reflects a different color depending on the direction you're looking at it from. Whoever made it apparently hasn't heard of yellow snow.

 Now that the sub-zero days of winter are (hopefully) past, Burt and Ivy went to work swapping out the Christmas decor for some other seasonal trimmings.

 We are definitely removing the outside decorations later than usual this year! I'm afraid the wreaths and garland are still frozen to the house.

Of course we can't leave the patio unadorned.

The garden books I've been reading lately talk a lot about taking time during the winter to give some serious thought to the structure of your garden. What? So I decided to think about all the things I could do with this empty space and came up with quite a few elaborate plans based on this supposedly "blank canvas".  Then it occurred to me to look at my photos to see what is normally growing there.

Oh yeah, lots of stuff! It's not a blank canvas in August. No matter how many phlox I dig up, by the end of July they have teamed up with the hydrangea for a complete take over. Now I remember why I don't make plans. It gets left up to Mother Nature and I call it a cottage garden.

Another thing the books tell you to do during the winter is to prune. Now that at least makes sense. The biggest issue with plants is that once they get to be just the right size, they never stay that way. It seems like pruning is very complicated and I always afraid I'm accidentally going to kill the plant. Our insurance company insists that we cut down this giant hydrangea because it's too close to the garage. They should tell that to the cardinals, they think it's just a perfect spot to catch some sun.

I guess taking a hard look at everything while it's covered in snow has brought more than couple things to my attention. Apparently, the phlox and hydrangea aren't the only out of control plants in the backyard. One way to tell if it's getting close to spring is to check out how much of the bench is still buried in snow. In January it's completely engulfed. It's also good at highlighting what needs to be fixed. Just how did the terrarium get full of snow? It's fun (and a little scary) to see all the different animal foot prints. Wonder where that critter path leads to? Clearly this bench needs some attention. 

It looked great last summer because you couldn't see it at all when the roses were blooming. It always was an uncomfortable place to sit even without getting poked in the butt by rose thorns. 

It looks like has Ivy decided a few birdhouses and some bunnies would help us think of spring while we're shivering in the cold. The fake greens stay to fill in the space.

The green lights are for St. Patrick's Day, because there's nothing else to do but drink!

(Okay, and maybe some pruning, but not too much.)

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!