Big mums, clean-up time

Returned from cool Rochester, NY and spent a good seven hours hand watering my Wilmington, NC front and back yard gardens. We're still desperately low on rainfall; down 5 inches for September alone.

Yet somehow, two autumn mums have managed to grow to mammoth size. I didn't get out the tape but they easily measure three feet across. I'll post a photo when they bloom. Already they're separating into clumps.

I'm officially in the garden clean-up mode. Trimmed the blue hydrangeas back far enough to allow a bit of sunshine to hit the tiny red azaleas surrounding the pine tree. Raked pine needles and laid them for mulch.

Drank a large cup of coffee in the sunroom afterwards and realized with glee that all I'll need next spring are another black-eyed susan, another tall Mexican petunia, a few red pentas (they grow tallest and most lushly) and lots of zinnias.

New Year, New Garden

Now that I've cleared away the Christmas clutter, the unfinished front yard beckons. Bright green weeds and dead gray grass scream for attention.

Since I bought a pick ax last fall, received a garden scooter from my kids for Christmas, and enlisted my husband's help for the heavy hacking, and since winter insists on being mercifully mild, there's no excuse not to finish the job.

After I tame the terrain, I promise to spread one shade and one type of mulch over all the front yard gardens, which now, sadly, reflect every type and shade of mulch on sale at Lowe's and Home Depot over the last year.

Seeing two bright pink flowers on a patch of creeping phlox cuddled next to the flagstone is stimulating and not something I'd see in Massachusetts this time of year. Ah, the joys of coastal Carolina.