almost there ...

... by which I mean spring, of course, the REAL spring when the days are never long enough to get all the gardening done, and first, the cleanup after a long winter, of course. I just can't wait to get out there and start renovating some of the garden beds.

Leaving your perennials over the winter instead of doing a serious fall cleanup has a number of benefits: it is good for the critters that visit your garden, it keeps the soil stable, and in the spring a lot of your plant debris can simply be incorporated into the soil. 

And it looks good. You probably identified the image on our home page correctly, these are echinacea seedheads (photo taken just yesterday). When the garden bed is cleaned up many of the seeds will fall and lead to a greater abundance of those beautiful blooms. If it gets to be too much of a good thing, transplant them next season or share with your neighbours.