Cleaning Up

Over the weekend and on Monday I got some work done in the garden. And noticed a few things. Cleaning up of all the dead foliage was the primary goal. I Really don't have much of this in the garden. I clean out my crops when they get harvested. But some things are more perennial. Like the mint above. I have four pots with mint. Mojito Mint, Peppermint, Chocolate Mint, and Citrus Kitchen. Since their little leaves are starting to pop out of the ground it was time to get rid of the dead branches above them.

Then there are the two strip gardens. The one by the house with my cilantro, sweet alyssum, and sunflowers. And the one above that holds my Anise Hyssop, Chamomile, Achillea, and Coreopsis. Above is the latter. You can see the Chamomile coming up. It seed was blown all over the garden. I occasionally weed one out all over the place. But the bed nearest where the spinach is has tons. I'm going to have to keep those flowers picked better this year. In my last garden it would reseed but barely.

In the strip garden by the house I also have two rosemary plants. Above is Tuscan Blue. I cut off some of the dead foliage, but it seems to have survived the winter even if it is a bit ragged. This plant is hardy to zone 8. I didn't think it would survive but I figured I'd try it anyway since it is the epitome of rosemary flavor. It has a nice microclimate here. The wall holds a lot of heat and is facing southwest. I shudder to think what insects have survived the winter if a zone 8 plant can survive in my garden.

The other rosemary I have along this wall is Hill Hardy. It is a zone 7 rosemary. It survived without too much damage at all. I'm hoping I can keep it alive in perpetuity even though I'm only zone 6. I also have an Arp, which is another one that has a chance here. Most say it is hardy to zone 7, some zone 6. I can hope. It did well in the circle garden which doesn't have as nice of a microclimate, but it is right outside my kitchen door. It was severely cut back in the fall. I was worried this might have damaged it, but it seems just fine. I don't have any new growth yet on my rosemarys, but I'm pretty sure they have survived at this point. I've dreamed of overwintering rosemary in my garden for years. It looks like I've finally been successful in this weirdly warm year.

On Monday I read three weather predictions for the night. One was 17F and the other two were 24F. Ouch. After the really hot weather we have had (in the high 70s and low 80s all last week), this was going to be a shock to the plants. The only ones I was worried about were the onions.

So I covered them on Monday with a row cover. And we only got down to 26F. It probably got a nice frost under my cover, but I'm guessing it didn't freeze the soil. I'm wondering if I should just leave the cover on for a while. The cats have already dug a couple of onions up. This will let the soil settle without any disturbance.