Taking advantage of a glorious day

A beautiful day in the garden! After brunch and a walk on the beach, there was no reason to go inside, so I started a late winter cleanup of the front yard gardens.

Cut back last autumn's mammoth mums: new growth starting. Cleaned up the lilies (some already sprouting, others lush with leaves). Trimmed the prostrate juniper away from the sidewalk. Cut back my favorite pony tail grasses. Many babies are ready to fill in where some of the older ones expired.

On a roll, I decided to tackle the Lady Banks rose, which for the last year has looked like it had been electrocuted. Tied the branches down to the arbor and cut off the erratic ones shooting helter-skelter. My Lady is loaded with buds and will soon present a fabulous display.

Throughout the winter purple and yellow pansies have bloomed gloriously in the front porch window boxes--something that continues to thrill me here in Wilmington.

Daffodils near sunroom

After a pleasant walk around the neighborhood this morning, I checked the garden in front of my sunroom and Viola! Daffodils! Many of them, some just leaves, some with buds, popping up near the windows.

I call this my reverse garden. It's designed with the smaller plants near the windows and taller shrubs set farther back. The sunroom is floor to ceiling windows, so we can enjoy the flowers without having to get up and look out the windows. Very pretty.

Windows, windows, window. What would I do without them?