On Saturday we continued our winter pruning and shearing in the front yard. After finishing the area outside the fence, my wife and daughters tackled the planting bed inside the fence. While some people just let their perennials be, we prefer a more manicured look—fresh green foliage without last year’s dead bits—for this part of our garden. After all, that’s what we see when we look out the front windows and hang out on the front porch.
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| Front yard on January 23, 2011 |
Right now, the planting bed does look bare and sad. But in just 4-6 weeks spring growth will start in earnest, and by early summer our front yard will hopefully look like it did last year.
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| Front yard on July 3, 2010 |
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| Front yard on July 3, 2010 |
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| View from front door on September 18, 2010 |
I’m definitely ready for spring! How about you?
I've never really thought about cold-hardy perennials and how they behave in warmer climates like yours, so I'm surprised that the echinacea goes dormant. I suppose it could be a length of day thing as opposed to a temperature thing. It sounds like you still have green basal foliage though on those, right? If so, that's much different than here, as the plants completely disappear.
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It's not work, it's gardening!
Alan, echinaceas go dormant here as well--no trace of the plant at all except for dried up flower stalks.
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