Planted My Pansies

We had beautiful weather this weekend and I planted my pansies--which officially signals the start of the gardening season for me.  I went to Merrifield on Sunday to get some advice from the gardening guy there about my peonies. He gave me a fungicide that I am to spray on the peonies when they get about six inches tall. (They were spotted with black and crunchy by the end of last season, and I am afraid they might have peony botrytis.) Spray them once a week until they bloom. Most of my peonies are just poking through the ground now,  about an inch tall now, though my peonies on the side of the garage are probably six inches, as they are in a warmer spot. So I will get started on that tomorrow, as it is supposed to rain later today.

Merrifield was a buzz of activity, as you can imagine in the spring. Their perennials and annuals are still covered, but they had lots of stock and how can I resist those pansies. They are so cheerful! I planted a few pots, and tore out the ugly stuff around my mailbox and filled in with pansies there, too. I figure I have six weeks or so before we go to Pennsylvania for our plants, so the pansies will give a little color until then.

Walt and I are gradually getting things done outside. Of course I have a list of things to do that I am adding to daily, but here it is so far: 

• Prune trees
• Trim back hellebores
• Cut back all anemones 
• Prune buddleias
• Cut back clematis
• Prune roses 
• Edge beds
• Clean out front perennials
• Tear vines off fence
• Trim lavenders
• Thin tree peony and stake
• Spray peonies and anemones with fungicide
• Bone meal on perennials
• Clean deck
• Clean and shellac gourd birdhouses
• Paint benches

I was reading an article yesterday about Nancy Goodwin,  a well- known gardener in North Carolina and it talked about her keeping garden records:

"Every Sunday, like clockwork, she sits down at her Macintosh with the week's checklist and enters everything that was done that week. The temperature each day, what was planted, what seeds were gathered, which plants were taken up and divided, which areas were weeded--it's all here. At the end of each year, the computer produces two spreadsheets, one alphabetized by plant name and one a listing by month of everything that was accomplished in the garden."

Now that's what I need to do! Anyway, here is a link to an article about her in last week's New York Times, in case you are interested. Her garden, Montrose,  is in Chapel Hill, open only by appointment, so I may have to make an appointment to visit sometime when we are visiting Julia in Chapel Hill.