Day 0 of the Gardening Year

It was very warm here this week and rained almost every day, a combination that has plants shooting up and buds ripening. So I went out in the muddy drizzle this morning to start my year's work in the garden. I cut down the dead plants I had left to provide a bit of winter interest and raked out a winter's worth of leaves and other trash.

The daffodils are coming up everywhere, more every year; eventually I'm going to have to start throwing some away.

Irises. Normally I would have applied my first spraying of DeerOff but since it rained all day and is supposed to rain all night I put that off.

I came in damp and coated with mud from the knees down but it was still nice to get out and enjoy growing things and rich earth.