Weekend Jobs, January 19 and 20

We had about five inches of rain over the last week, so things are really wet. Since I've got clay soils, this is a really bad time to plant. Generally, if the soils are wet, don't plant. There are a lot of voids in a healthy soil, space for roots to grow and water to drain through. Those voids can be closed down if they are compacted and that makes things more difficult for plants. So if its too wet, I avoid planting.

But there is always plenty to do in the garden:

1. Clean up after the storm. There are leaves and twigs everywhere after stormy days with occasional high winds. That means there's a fair amount of clean up to do. I got off fairly easily this time, as the rains were so heavy at times that they actually flooded one street and swept away a lot of leaves. But there are other areas that need some attention with a broom.

2. Weed and weed and weed. The rains have brought up a LOT of wild flower seeds. YAY! And a lot of weed seeds. BOO! This is a good time to weed, actually. Moist soils facilitate pulling plants generally, and especially those little thugs that don't want. There's one little annual that has asserted itself over the last couple of years and I now have big swatches of it to deal with in my annual beds. I'm not sure what it is....small round leaves, about 1/2 inch high and growing to 6-8 inches around, insignificant flowers. They tend to be really dense, too.

3. Pruning. Still some time to prune back deciduous shrubs. I think this can go through February as longs as we don't get too much heat to break dormancy. I need to do some work on my Betula occidentalis. I may actually have to remove it, but that doesn't have to happen right away.

4. Dead Bulb Pots. I have a number of pots in the bulb collection that haven't produced any sprouts. I need to check if they are dead and, if so, clear them out. The tables are packed, so it would be good to make room for other things.

That's a do-able list. Probably other things will pop up, they always do.