This weekend was surprisingly productive.  After having neglected the garden for months, I spent about three hours cleaning up.

My goal was to prune our apple tree in the back, but after the near-death pruning that we inflicted on it last year, there was really not much to cut off except for one cankerous branch.  Near the tree were lots of sprouting snowdrops, so I raked the leaves from the grassy areas (I wouldn’t call it ‘lawn’).  Once I started, I couldn’t stop…I ended up raking all the leaves from under the bushes in the shrub beds and from under the hazelnut tree with our crappy leaf rake. (Note to self: buy new rake).  Also pulled out a lot of evil ivy with my bare hands; yup, manicure season is over, girlfriend.

Today I bought a new three-pronged rake thingy and six huge bags of western tree bark mulch (6 bags for $50). I used all six bags to mulch the area under the rhodos, so will need more for the trees and raspberries.