Spring Surprises

Spring is teasing us with some lovely days in the 60s and low 70s this week. It probably won’t last, but my inner gardener is rarin’ to go.

I wait until spring to clean up my flowerbeds. I find it’s much easier to pull out my annuals after their roots have spent the winter in the cold, harsh ground. In the fall they are still very much alive and put up a fight. I usually end up pulling out more soil from the ground than plant material. There’s much less drama in the spring. Besides, the juncos and goldfinches enjoy the dried flower seeds, and ladybugs and other beneficial insects have someplace to hide over winter.

By delaying my clean-up until spring, I also get a few surprises. Some of my annuals always manage to survive under the snow pack. I have very good luck with rudbeckias which makes sense because many of them are perennials grown as annuals in my Zone 5 garden. I can usually count on at least a few plants from ‘Autumn Colors”, ‘Prairie Sun’ or ‘Indian Summer’:

My Dianthus ‘Amazon Neon Rose’ plants also gut out winter from time to time:

After the snow melted last year, I was amazed to see one of my Salvia ‘Evolution’ plants peeking up from the ground. It’s a perennial in Zones 9-11. That’s Florida weather, not Wisconsin weather. But then again, when you’re sitting under 3 feet of snow for 4 months, you’re pretty well insulated from the extremes.

I still need to clean up over half of my flowerbeds, but I don’t consider it a chore. It gives me a great excuse to putter outside in the sunshine and fresh air during our little “taste of summer.”