As many of you already know, the weather took a change this week for the Mid-Atlantic. We were bundled up in winter coats last Friday and by Monday, it was too hot for even a light spring jacket. Previous temperature records were broken on Wednesday at all three airports in the Washington, DC area. So it has been quite a week. Fortunately, a cool front came through last night and brought temperatures down to a more seasonal level. I slept without air conditioning last night nor open windows. Even though it has been hot, I have made some progress in my spring clean-up and here are a few shots of what has been going on.
I was pleased that this hardy fern on the front porch made it through the winter. It suffered a little burn on some of the fronds which I cleaned up with a pear of garden shears. What was so surprising, and a welcome sight, were the tulips which started to shoot up. I forgot that I planted bulbs in this pot, so it will be interesting to see how many and what color they are.
I cleaned off the front sidewalk. You can see the boxwood on the right is suffering this year. I am still uncertain of what is going on. I will have to do more research on this. It may be time for a very heavy pruning this year of all of the boxwood. We'll see about that in the next few weeks.
I had a few more of the evergreen fertilizer spikes to get in the ground. That project is now complete. If you look closely, you can see tiny little orange pellets on the ground. That is the Scott's Crabgrass Halt and Spring Fertilizer. I got that spread on both the front and back yards.
Finally, there was the hydrangea which needed some attention. You can see the mophead of blooms from last season still hanging on.
I went over the entire plant with a pair of hand shears and removed just the dead mopheads. On many of the stems there is new growth just under the mopheads. So I was very careful just to remove the outermost part. See all the new growth. It is very healthy and will be spectacular in just a few weeks.
In the pictures above it does not look like there was much trimming to do. But that was not the case. I ended up with a bag full of clippings.
So that is what is going on at Crest Avenue. I hope the weather is nice in your area and that you are enjoying time in your lawn and gardens preparing for a splendid spring and summer.
I was pleased that this hardy fern on the front porch made it through the winter. It suffered a little burn on some of the fronds which I cleaned up with a pear of garden shears. What was so surprising, and a welcome sight, were the tulips which started to shoot up. I forgot that I planted bulbs in this pot, so it will be interesting to see how many and what color they are.
I cleaned off the front sidewalk. You can see the boxwood on the right is suffering this year. I am still uncertain of what is going on. I will have to do more research on this. It may be time for a very heavy pruning this year of all of the boxwood. We'll see about that in the next few weeks.
I had a few more of the evergreen fertilizer spikes to get in the ground. That project is now complete. If you look closely, you can see tiny little orange pellets on the ground. That is the Scott's Crabgrass Halt and Spring Fertilizer. I got that spread on both the front and back yards.
Finally, there was the hydrangea which needed some attention. You can see the mophead of blooms from last season still hanging on.
I went over the entire plant with a pair of hand shears and removed just the dead mopheads. On many of the stems there is new growth just under the mopheads. So I was very careful just to remove the outermost part. See all the new growth. It is very healthy and will be spectacular in just a few weeks.
In the pictures above it does not look like there was much trimming to do. But that was not the case. I ended up with a bag full of clippings.
So that is what is going on at Crest Avenue. I hope the weather is nice in your area and that you are enjoying time in your lawn and gardens preparing for a splendid spring and summer.
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