A stormy rain lasted the whole night. In the morning, the sun rose up, and everything looked fresh and tender. A lot of birds were singing from high up in our woodland area. How they loved the morning sun after the rain. For the first time since the winter, we saw a chipmunk. I wondered if it was hibernating the whole time and just came out to get some food in the belly to continue its sweet sweet sleep. We also saw three smaller squirrels with bright white bellies eating under the bird feeders. They were either teenagers or our regulars who have lost a ton of weight. It is still January, but you could sense that Spring is on its way.
We had a very busy weekend. This was it. Time to prepare our garden for the spring. Matt chopped off all the long and thin branches of the crape myrtles in the front yard; while I took out my foldable chair and went to our flower bed to give all the roses a hard trimming. After the roses, I turned to other perennials to remove the dead branches, dry leaves, and hollow stems: butterfly bushes, phlox, moms, iris, iron weeds...When I cleared out the debris, right in the middle of the already-cut-short hollow stems, there lied these tiny, fresh, and brand new green sprouts. Yes, you learned about the cycle of plants and expected them to come back the second year. But it still felt so unbelievable and amazing to actually see it happening. Right there. Submerged from the seemly dull and barren ground.
After a year of growth, our lavenders were looking gangly and messy. So I trimmed the branches to about one-third of the original length. I also did a light trimming on our rosemaries. It felt different to cut off those perfectly healthy branches with new growth on the top, compared to cutting off the brown parts of herbaceous plants. But I knew it was just like a haircut and would only promote strong and vigorous growth for the next year. After the trimming, my hands are dyed with a mixed scent of the herbs, which made me happy and hopeful.
The next day, we planted a Methley Plum tree in the backyard. We couldn't wait to see its blossom in the Spring!
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