I am not going to show you pictures of my messy deck right now. Trust me, you don't want to see them. There is nothing there but pots full of brown dirt, dead sticks, and a little bit of evergreen branches. Not to mention the pile of pots that are perched precariously on the 1 x 6's balanced between two of the lawn chairs. Oh, and the crumpled, cream colored duvet cover that was used for emergency winter protection, the one with the great big dirt smudges on it. It started when the temperature dipped suddenly to way way below zero. In Celsius it was cold, and going down to -15. I was still in the middle of that nasty flu virus, but I braved the sub zero temperatures and went outside. Only to find out that most of the pots were frozen to the brick railing. Those that I could pry off, made it to the lawn chair's temporary shelter. And there they have sat for a few months. Every year I get too anxious and move plants out too soon, cut back to early, and re pot before I should. And I pay the price. This year, well I figure that most of them have frozen to death, so they can wait a little while longer.
Yesterday was a lovely day, I moved a shade loving golden mock orange, Philadelphus coronarius 'Aureus' to a better spot under the giant Rhodo in the garden. It was frying on the deck, despite the shade from the Parotia tree. That meant that the maiden hair fern, Adiantum pedatum, could finally move into a bigger and better spot. It has huge fronds that need to get shuffled aside every time someone opens the deck gate.
With the Maiden hair fern vacating it's container, the Japanese painted ferns should be moved so they can show off their spectacular burgundy and silver foliage. Do you see where I am going, once I start moving just one plant, there is a huge line up of others clamouring to be repotted. And it is not even spring yet, I can hardly wait.
The mess is growing bigger every day.