Hello Winter Aconite, Goodbye Winter Interest

Winter Aconite – Hello

Last Saturday was March 5th and winter aconite was blooming in my front yard. I kid you not. Chicagoland. March 5th. Blooms. YES!! Now that’s a sign of spring that I always look for. Sometimes I have to look for the buds under snow since we are, after all, in Chicagoland, but I do find them.

Winter Interest – Goodbye

This year March 5th was miraculously warm, and I sadly spent time in my office. Gotcha! As you can see, my office is my garden. Lucky me. One of the perks of being retired.

My garden really needs me as spring approaches, mostly because I leave a lot of my autumn garden clean-up for now. After all, by the time autumn comes, I am admittedly not as interested in working in my garden as I am now after a winter of being garden deprived. I can also justify it as being very practical since so many of last year’s leftovers can add winter interest. So not everything gets put away or cut back.

Take these mums in a milk can and the sedums, for example. Really, I want you to take them. I’m done with them. Ok, that is not gonna happen, but I will still use them as two examples of winter interest.

1. The mums in a milk can were near my garden entrance where they greeted me each morning. I moved that for the winter to a spot where I could see them from my patio doors every day. Sure, they aren’t as pretty (understatement) as they were last fall, but they beat a flat landscape and the milk can is interesting all year.
2. The sedums are nice to look at all winter, and they get cut down early as the new growth is there early. So early that I was seeing plenty of new growth as I cut them down.

Much of the winter interest in my garden got moved that day. Really moved. As you can see, it’s not quite as lovely in its temporary location. Still, I celebrate that today’s warmth brought “Hello winter aconite and goodbye winter interest”. Like John Muir, I say: “Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”