The Birdbath Garden in February - What a Mess!

Its that time of year, just before blossoms begin to bloom when the garden looks it's worst. Mulch hasn't been spread - or at least not enough, old dead growth from perennials hasn't been cleared away, and in general things look like a mess. But that's OK! You have to start somewhere right? Every garden has it's low point and I think we're now starting to rise again.

These daffodils seem to think so:

 

The daffodils are very close to the bird bath which unfortunately is in great need of repair. A soldering iron and a new coat of stain (for the wood) would work wonders. 

The garden as a whole will fill in nicely - eventually. I seem to expand it a little bit each year and this past fall is no different than falls in the past. I expanded the stone boarder and planted two small arborvitae in the new areas to flank a short pathway to the bench seat. The pathway needs landscape fabric and gravel of some kind before the grass gets growing. The butterfly bush needs cut back to about 18 inches tall and the redtwig dogwoods should probably be trimmed to encourage fresh growth this year. All of my red twig dogwoods came from cuttings. That 'Powis Castle' artemisia looks rather ragged but when the frosts are no longer in sight I'll trim it back and let it grow. I trimmed an artemisia back early one year and it died so I don't plan on repeating that mistake.

The irises are pushing up new blades but you can still see the old ones hanging around. Many people trim them into fan shapes after they have bloomed but I just leave them alone. Most of the time they get covered up by other foliage and you hardly even know the irises are there.

Last year was the first year my Burkwood viburnum bloomed and I loved its scent! I can already see this year's blooms beginning to appear.

Is your garden a mess like mine?