Well I ordered my seed starting supplies and my seeds are here. Now I have to figure out exactly when I will start the seeds because the seed starting of it all literally takes over my dining room table.

So last week I decided to turn my attention outside when it wasn’t raining. I trimmed some bushes. I trimmed red twig and yellow twig dogwoods, and a couple of willows and my GIANT rugosa rosebush and some other rose bushes.

I did trim the giant rugosa fairly hard. But its own root and bare root so I think she’ll recover. This rose is Blanc Double de Coubert. It is a most prolific grower and the thorniest of my roses. But in spite of a couple of big prunings last summer and fall, it was easily 6 feet around and about 9 feet tall. I hadn’t wished to prune so hard but the recent snow and rain beat the bush down, so I had to clean the bush up.

I also picked up branches and things like that. I noticed bulbs are already poking up and my Hellebores seem confused. And the deer. Damn deer. Sprayed for them again. Didn’t notice any new damage but there are so many of them.

My arborists were around on Friday to remove a dead tree off a neighbor in the rear’s shed. We helped out and allowed access from the rear of our woods and the dead tree, which was mostly hollow was chunked and added to a pile of decaying logs in our woods. It’s a stumpery of sorts. Not particularly fancy but the woodpeckers and other woodland critters love it. Treemendous did a terrific job.

But now it is kind of the ugly season in the garden. There is beauty in some plants and the structure of things, but honestly it is just too brown. And it has been good to get out and tidy up a bit. The bird watching has been wonderful and one of the eastern flying squirrels is back!

According to the poor groundhog woken up in Punxsutawney, PA spring is on the way. Maybe we will have a little more snow first?