Iris tidying

Hello February. My, we have been busy in the garden.

You might have thought I threw a hissy fit and decided to stay in Venice and just mooch. It has been ages since I wrote.

I swear you could spend a winter visiting every single church in every single square of that gorgeous city and still not run out of things to do.

But even by the end of January this was starting to occur …

Eek. So that was a great signal that it was time to scuttle back to the mountain solitude.

And acres of gardens to maintain.

I have been deep in garden maintenance. Which is sadly not very pretty. But necessary if you want a garden that thrives all year round and is a delight for months to come.

So iris tidying was definitely on the late winter agenda.

Now there is nothing wrong with those irises in the title. They look rather fetching in fact.

Ah yes. The great Ta Da moment of the iris’s brief flowing life. In May.

In winter however, the iris is a rather sorry-looking sight.

But at least they are easy to tidy and for once in this steep garden, it’s a nice sitting down job.

It’s just the scale of the long ‘hedge’ of plants that can be daunting. After all, the blocky zing of colour in spring is only achieved if you plant en masse.

Or just wait a few years for everything to get crowded and cramped and you have a similar effect.

I started at one end of the lawn closest to the apple tree and just started yanking out the dead strappy leaves.

Almost meditative, if you don’t count the rogue bramble hiding in the undergrowth.

Here is an action shot of the before and after..

I don’t bother tidying them perfectly. We are at the end of February and there is a chance more frosts are forecast. But I know that I will run out of time in March to do work like this.

So I call this afternoon of sitting and weeding a win.

And yes I have made a note to lift and divide as soon as these gorgeous irises have finished flowering…

What a shame that it happens just at the busiest time of work in the garden.