Spring is in the Air

This past Sunday (March 4) we headed out for the first real day of gardening! Only a few days earlier, we had about four inches of snow but by Sunday all had melted, and the air had warmed and cleared. My tactic this year is to approach the yard section by section for initial clean up and some pruning, as well as finally deal with a few projects we haven’t quite been getting to.

So we started right out front by the street. This is the area under the plum tree, where we had a sick --- but beautiful --- very old rhodie removed about a year ago. We also had a completely overgrown patch of what we were told are irises, though we have only seen the small, orange berries since moving in two years ago. Although I seem to have a vague memory of seeing one or two flowers, we are fairly sure they just haven’t bloomed. I guess this is because they were overcrowded.

These irises are called “Stinking Iris.” I read a little about them. Supposedly when you bruise the leaves, the emit a bad odor, usually described as roast-beef-like and that can be smelled from a good distance away.

Although I haven’t eaten roast beef in about 18 years and have never cooked one myself, I am pretty sure I know what that smell is. And I don’t smell it! (Well, maybe just a little but I’m not certain that isn’t just from the suggestion.) Or maybe we are just used to it, and everybody on the block knows us as the Roast Beef People.

For 6+ hours, we raked leaves, weeded, and pruned. J focused on those irises. And he replanted them in a new pattern to help fill in. (Hoping for a new bush of some sort soon to add, too – and eventually really spruce things up with a full, mixed hedge and dwarf fruit tree!)

It felt great to get outside and make some progress. Yay for Spring! I am looking at (and smelling) the new deck furniture in the basement every time I go down to do a load of laundry. Can’t wait.