Green Stuff? In February?

As the snow started falling this morning just as I was headed off to work, I had to wonder how we managed to have such a lovely, balmy weekend only 6 days earlier. Last Saturday, I spent some time out in the yard cutting back some our of plants. I brought the beagle out with me for some company and came to two realizations while I was out there.

Firstly that I needed to do some weeding. And I needed to do it in February.

Secondly, I had some green. Some of plants had come back and were just as ready for Spring as I am.

I was not overly surprised that I needed to pull some Quackgrass, and I even found some spots in the yard where I could justify taking the mower out. (Note: I did not actually take the mower out.) I did however notice that many of the invasive plants which I thought I had successfully removed last Fall were blooming. It appears that we will be stuck with Purple Pansies and Asiatic Lilies forever. They seem to be doing quite well in front of our house.

Pansies are hybrid plants based on European Violas.

The Lilies seeded themselves.

When I made it to the backyard though I found cause for some celebration. Some of the native plants which I planted last year were coming back. It was late Spring last year when I started pulling up the invasive plants which the previous owner had planted and began adding native plants like Purple Coneflower and Little Blue Stem. Neither of these plants were coming back, but I as cut back some of the native plants, I found three surprises.

The Blue Lupine is coming up already. This was good news considering the rabbits had chewed it to the ground.

The Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida Columnifera) was looking very green.

And here's some white clover which despite being invasive adds nitrogen to the soil, so I usually leave this one alone.