Time for a Little Spring Cleaning

It had been FAR too long since any real work was done in what we call the Barrier Garden.  This bed is mostly daylilies with a few different trees/shrubs mixed in and a bunch of iris.  It got sacrificed last summer when the Plant Geek was laid up with a bad back and I kept the garden watered and parts of it weeded, but some things had to wait for later.  Later finally came this past weekend.

Here's a nice after photo showing a lack of weeds and a lot of pruning

As you can see below, things had definitely gotten out of hand.  The loquats grew a ton last year, making it almost impossible to navigate the stepping stones we put in place.  The abelias have done their thing and become a mass of random canes lolling about the garden.  There was a strange vine weed that was covered with spines that had moved into one end of the garden and set up shop.  Finally can we talk about all of the weeds that are literally covering up the daylilies.  There were a few that you could't even see in there due to all of the mess.

Here's another view of the jungle like before pictures.  Please take note of the spiney weeds spilling out of the little fence.  I'll admit, I refused to deal with them.

After a few hours of work in the morning (thank goodness the toddler is getting better at keeping herself entertained outside) and some hard and fast work during nap time, we got it all cleared out.  It doesn't appear that we actually lost any plants, which really highlights the hardiness of the daylily.

I'm not going to lie, it was great to get outside and do some work as a family...well two of us worked, one played in her sand box, blew bubbles, and desperately tried to get our dogs to play fetch.  Next weekend will be another big one, we clean-up the tropical garden, assuming the weather cooperates.

How is your spring clean-up going?