About Me

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I am a retired English teacher and department head, the mother of three grand mother of four, and have been married to the same man for 52 years. I subscribe to Dr. PM Forni's concept of Civility. I was born in South Philadelphia and grew up in the 'burbs. I love soft pretzels and cheesesteaks, the Phillies, the Eagles, and San Diego. I love being Mom, Aunt Kathy, Nona Kathy, and Teacher. I spend a lot of time in my gardens in the spring and summer, and in the winter I plan what I'm going to plant. I also am an avid reader and photographer.

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Monday, March 22, 2010

Want Rain? Wash Your Windows

The dog sits under my chair seeking comfort from the thunder.  It's 59° and pouring; it probably will not reach the forecasted 63°.  Still not bad considering this time six weeks ago we were up to our schnutzes in snow.  Forsythia, helleborus, and daffodils are blooming and every day another perennial pokes above ground. 

Yesterday and Saturday we cleaned out all but three of the gardens, cutting back kniphofia, Dutch irises, and any dead remaining from last year.  We cleaned out all the pots, throwing away those that deteriorated over the winter,  readying the remaining  for new soil .  (This is the first year that I hadn't stored them all in the garage.  The snow came so early, we didn't have a chance to -- I won't make that mistake again).  Now I need to get to work designing what colors and plants I want to place in them.  Partial to combinations of purple and orange-red, I 'colorscape', first, then find plants to match what colors I want. 

We also washed the nine sliding glass doors around the sunporch, using a Windex wand which worked quite well;  I used the wand and pad on the windows while Richard followed with the hose and as promised, the windows dried without streaks.  Of course, it's raining today....

13 comments:

happyone said...

Sounds like you've been busy getting ready for all those plants. I'll have to take a walk over there in the summer to see all your flowers in person. :-)

Purple Flowers said...

It must have been alot of work, but you can see the fruits of your labor. We cleaned up our garden yesterday. Crocus are up and a few marionette daffy's. I love the Spring flowers.

Jay said...

I did a little spring cleaning myself this morning. I cleared the snow off my car. ;-)

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

You've been busy. There's always so much to do this time of year getting things cleaned up and ready for planting.
I haven't even thought about cleaning windows yet. You're way ahead of me.

Lena said...

9 sliding glass doors? Wow! Team work is good!

Colorscaping is a great idea! Love that.

Two Minute Takes said...

Loved Jay's comment! Admire all the gardening knowledge you have and all the planning you do for your gardens. If your home looks half as pretty in the summer as it did at Christmas time your neighbours must be delighted and jealous at the same time :)
You and all your blogger friends are invited to join in this weekend for my first ever blog link-up. Picture Perfect Weekends over at http://amencorners.blogspot.com/ Love to have you be a part of it, great way to meet a lot of interesting people.

A Slice of My Life said...

Wait...you're supposed to colorscape your garden??? I'm so new to all this gardening stuff that I thought it was a good thing to just keep everything alive! lol

C.A. said...

I can't WAIT to get outside and get my hands in the dirt again...it's like free therapy! :) Sounds like you are well on your way to having your Summer Color planned out! If you want the flowers, we have to put up with the rain, I guess.

Happy Day!

C.A.

Kimberly said...

I hope you post pictures when everything is in bloom! I love flowers and lots of color, but have not a clue how to do it all.

Gilly said...

Another hard worker in the garden! Ours still looks flattened from the snow, though we must do something about the lawn soon! Like feed it!

Small early daffodils are making a lovely show, but the bigger ones haven't turned their heads over yet. Crocuses have more or less finished. Not much sign of anything else!

Can we have a bit o your warmth over here, please?

Cheryl said...

I was glad to be away last weekend, but really missed being outside in the great weather and getting dirt under my nails. Can't wait to see your garden. You're really a pro.

jane said...

can´t wait to see your spring garden. i remember i first found you in your garden around this time last year:) p.s. your trip looks like it was amazing:)

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

I have a few crocuses in bloom, but that's it so far. (However, my lettuce seedlings will be ready to plant out in about a week. Woo hoo.)

Sorry to read that you lost some pots. I love your idea of color scaping.