The past couple of days I've managed to get into the yard for about an hour each day. Both days I worked on removing last fall's debris from the flower beds: leaves, dead branches from last year's perennials, a few perennial weeds. We like to let the leaves pile up on the flower beds and just leave them there to help mulch & protect the plants from frost damage. Now it's time to remove the leaves so as not to smother the young growth.
I love this first chance to see the perennials start to poke their heads up. I was worried about the agapanthus because I didn't bother to cover them with straw, and then read after those two really cold nights that they're only hardy to zone 8. But they both look alive, yay! I guess the leaves gave them enough protection. Also, more of the snapdragons survived than I had expected. Well, what I had expected was "none" and what survived was "some." I really like how they looked last year so I'm going to get more seeds and fill in the bare spots. I think this time I'll get softer colors. The blue star, roses, hydrangeas, columbine, hardy orchids and clematis are all coming back. I think we might have lost the toad lily though. Something yanked it out of the ground last fall. I put it back but there might have been too much root damage.
I haven't checked the really tender plants: the gerber daisies, amaryllis, and artichokes. They're all still under straw. I'm not bullish on the gerber daisies but they'd be cheap to replace. Our phlomis is also looking really dead, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. Dave's Garden says it should survive down to 5°F and I'm just going to assume they're right.
We also planted a few more seeds under the grow lamp: parsley, gazanias, and a flower we've never tried before called Texas Bluebells. Tomorrow if I get home in time I'm going to starting plant seeds outside. We've got the sugar snaps, spinach and beets which can all be planted now.
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