2026 March 21 Resisting Spring Cleanup

This is one of the hardest times of the year for me. I’m itching to get out and start “cleaning up” the garden for growing season. We’ve had a few warm days, false springs, followed by snow, followed by rain. I see some Phlox Phlox divaricata, Tall Thimbleweed Anemone virginiana, and Golden Alexander Zizia aurea popping through the leaf mulch. No. It’s not time yet. It won’t be time until late April, possibly May. I know it sounds crazy, but if we’re really in this for pollinators, they know to not hatch yet. 

Phlox divaricata 

Anemone Virginiana

Zizia aurea

Yesterday I came across a lovely patch of Dogbane Apocynum cannabinum on one of our work sites. A closer look revealed maybe 30 praying mantis oothecae in a ten foot radius of me! These were Chinese Mantis oothecae, which are considered to be invasive around here. Seeing these unhatched egg sacks tells me that the other insects are still waiting for warmer days too. We run a risk of killing off native insects if we disturb wild areas too soon. I’m not as worried about killing off the invasive species right now, but we can see this as an indicator of how other life forms might be behaving. Also, the presence of these mantid predators indicates that this area is probably hosting a ton of insects for them to feed on. I believe things will balance out here.

Another reason to wait on cleanup…after my last post where I reported on blowing all the fallen leaves into the soft landing area, we got a ton of wind. I had worried that those leaves would be too think and heavy for the new planting. Well, now there is not one leaf left. We spent an hour of time and fuel doing basically nothing. There would have been less environmental impact and zero aesthetic impact if we found something else to do that day. 

The wind blew away the whole thick layer of leaf mulch at the soft landing site. What can you do…that’s March for you! 

In another fun update, my ten year old Bantam Easter Egger hen from my original flock laid a little blue egg on the equinox! Hens typically lose their egg production with age, and ten years is really pushing it to be alive in general. I’m considering adding a few more Bantam Easter Egger chicks to the flock this year. Here’s my post mentioning the first egg of the 2026 season.

The hen out of focus with the black tail is the blue egg layer and the white Silkie chicken laid the pink one. 

This is Olive. She’s 10 and lays blue eggs. A modern wonder!