Garden in January

Finally decided to take advantage of the last warm day (cold front coming) to start clearing out the deadwood (sticks, leaves, blossoms, etc.) from the garden. I cut the lantana back and realized it's gotten as big as a small house, and the sweet clematis vine has almost solidified. Last summer I wasn't here, and the drought and overgrowth had almost killed everything except such hardy weeds as these. Sadly, the last two weeks of warmth have fooled some plants--forsythia's buds are beginning to swell. The camellias though are looking good, except one that has that awful mildewy stuff. I'm not up to using poison in my yard just for a few more flowers, so hope it doesn't spread. Will look into organic remedies.

Next task is getting out the blackberry and grapevines, the honeysuckle and oak sapling-ettes. By the time I get that done, I should be able to divide the iris and Mexican petunias, moving some to the front yard, and plant some oak-leave and regular hydrangeas. I'm not sure they'll survive, since I always winding up going to Chicago during the hottest part of the summer, but I'll give them a try.

My ultimate yard may well be just lantana, spiderwort, forsythia, azalea, camellia, Mexican petunia, sweet autumn clematis, and Turk's turban. I also have some extremely hardy swamp sunflowers that grow 8 feet tall, and some nice purple asters that bloom very late. And the Confederate rose may be coming back after all--looked dead last fall, but some of the branches still have green inside. And, oh, yes, dear althea.

So much like the rest of my life. Ignore things, don't nurture them, let trivia crowd out the important things...and then in the darkest days, a warm time when I find there's lots still living to cherish, and under all that's dead the possibility of things growing to blossom.