Garden Cleanup, Continued

Things are looking so much better!  I got a lot done yesterday, I worked outside all day, mostly in the front perennial garden. I pulled most of the zinnias, cut back the stalks of the coneflowers (I hate how they get black and ugly), trimmed a ton of nepeta, trimmed the lavenders, the herbs, pulled a lot of rotted lambs ears,  deadheaded the phlox. Oh, and weeded...especially around my front pavers. How can weeds possibly get that big in one week??

Then I moved on to pots. I emptied several pots, mostly the million bells, petunias, and vincas that had gotten so straggly. I left the big pots which are still doing pretty good, but I have to tell you, I'm ready to yank them all. Once I get started I just want to get rid of them. I have this dilemma every fall, do I keep my pots, or do I empty them and put in fall stuff, like mums. Mums are around for such a short time, but the colors are so fall! A guy up the street who has a greenhouse grows his own mums, and he has the most spectacular display of mums right now (I'll try to get a picture).

Next it's time to attack the peonies, but it's hard to get to them because they are surrounded by so much other stuff, anemones, baptisia, etc. I think I must have some peony botrytis, because the foliage by now is black and spotted, so I need to completely cut them down and get rid of all the debris, and then clean my pruners, so I don't spread it around. I know I should treat them in the spring with a fungicide, but somehow I always forget to do that.

Interestingly, a neighbor stopped by yesterday to commiserate about the pruning the town did on our trees. She complained to the town also, and she said other people up the street have complained as well. She told me she loves my cherry tree--it is pretty amazing when it is blooming. The town is supposed to come next week to fix some of the damage they did when they pruned it a few weeks ago. I am kind of worried, wondering whether I should just call the tree guy I usually use, but the town guy is a forester, for God's sake, he should know how to prune a tree, right?