Spring Chores

Tuesday was an absolutely magnificent day, and today promises to be even more beautiful. I wandered out into my winter-weary yard yesterday and tried to think what to work on first ... I have to admit I got sidetracked for a bit just soaking up the sunshine and daydreaming.

I started to cut back the zebra grass, but gave up on that pretty quickly. The grass is over 7 feet tall and usually stands up all winter long, but was smashed all over the patio by the snow we had last month.  All I had were my little pruners and I soon got tired of nipping each individual grass stalk.  It seems like you need a special new garden tool no matter what job you are doing! I'll have to make a trip to Lowes and get something that will slice right through the whole mess. I've seen the landscapers hack through them with a chain saw, but I'm not planning to get that radical.

The picture at the right is the zebra grass in early summer. It's still growing.

 So near the grass (everything's near everything else in our little yard!) the grapevine was looking like it needed more attention than anything else in the yard. I've read that grapevines should be pruned in late winter, and we're just squeaking out of winter so now is the time, right? I hope I didn't wait too long and I hope I didn't kill the darn thing because once I got started I was like a woman possessed! I couldn't stop!

Here is the grapevine about 3/4 finished. Yikes.

Here is the grapevine last summer.

Here is the pile of viney stuff that I hacked off.

So now you have the pictures that will save me writing 1,000 words!

I have never, not once, cut back the grapevine this drastically. I even woke up in the middle of the night worrying about it! I hope I didn't harm it irreparably.  Because I   need this grapevine to spring back to its former self. As you can see, the support system is not attractive, no no no. The birds love the concord grapes that we have in abundance in August and September. As well, I usually make some jam or something and one of my neighbors made some delicious wine one year, so we need these grapes! It makes an excellent dense hedge for privacy. Although I enjoy talking to my neighbor, Barb, and we have to peek through the thin parts to talk, but all in all, it's worth it. When you stand near it in September, it smells like someone just opened a jar of Welch's grape juice! lol. Reminds me of being a kid!

On another note, I am finally admitting that I am a hopeless fan of American Idol! Hubby and son are not fans. Jesse will watch it for a few minutes if he is passing through, but soon moves on to something or somewhere else. It's now at the point where it begins to get entertaining ~ once all the strange auditions are over and you see how talented the remaining 12 people are.  It's just amazing to me how much talent each of these kids have! I'm not a fan of Simon, but I find I agree with him most of the time. I never vote (really!) but it's interesting to see how the voting goes. I'll be tuning in tonight!