Garden progress

The bad weather of early April disappeared, and so did I, into the garden with all its spring jobs.

Winter damage that's apparent so far includes forsythia blooming only where it was covered with snow, and one young maple tree that bit the dust.

Here's what we (my husband, my helpers and I) have accomplished so far:

-Cut down ornamental grasses and old perennial stalks and cleaned up where necessary. This is huge, as there are several big beds, as large as a suburban yard.

-Cut back hellebores (we have a mass planting of these in our shade garden, thanks to my hot-shot propagator husband), and clematis.

-Pruning of trees and shrubs - a big job still in progress, but I'm lucky to have found an expert who used to work for Royal Botanical Gardens. He has trained all our young hardwood trees to perfection.

-Cleaned up under our big weeping willow and burned the resulting pile of brush.

-Mowed down two-acre wildflower meadow.

-Cleaned up twigs and branches on the lawn areas. Started mowing.

-Planted a few perennials, and got peas and spinach planted too.

-John has begun the usual removal of dead plants from his rock garden, to be followed by planting of new stuff he's grown from seed over the past couple of years.