We enjoy looking at overgrown, scruffy perennials all winter, rather than the big empty spaces that remain after we prune them.
Around mid-winter, though, when the days grow longer and warmer, we get itchy for spring. Then we go out and give everybody their haircuts.
We have a venerable salvia in the middle of the back bed. The hummingbirds feed from its red flowers almost until New Year's. By March the old growth is senile, and tiny new shoots are pushing to get a little sunlight.
You know the cartoons that appear without fail every New Year's, where cranky Old Man Last Year won't get off stage for Little Baby New Year? In our garden, my pruning shears are the hook that gets the ol' geezer out of there.
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A couple hours of pruning, and the salvia is ready for spring. So are the clumps of catmint below it. |
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