Garden Gossip: the death toll

Today, a crisp clear Sunday, has been spent pruning and weeding and taking stock of the damage that a colder-than-normal winter has done to the garden.

I love weeding and pruning, it's a great workout and stress reliever all in one. Especially the giant prickly weeds, I must confess a slightly sadistic pleasure in yanking them out. I probably should see a shrink about that.

At the end of the day, I have rosy cheeks and that good-honest-day's-work-in-the-sun ache in my bones. In the shower (that feels better than any shower I remember taking in a long time), I reflect on the death toll:

Two small boxwoods
Two young cardoons
One jade plant
Nearly all of one rose bush
Half of one unidentifiable shrub that I accidentally backed over in the snowstorm.

About 1/6 of all my lawn - lost not to the cold, but to the incredibly powerful noses and feet of the cinghiale as they 'rooted' looking for food.

The lemons and oranges will come out next week, according to my neighbor. They're tired of being stuck inside the limonaia and I don't blame them! One is throwing off his fruit in anguish. The fresh air will do them good.

I spent about an hour hacking away the dead majority of of one entire giant sage (salvia?) bush in the front yard. There was a breath of new growth in a few places near the base. Its smaller sisters on either side of it seemed fine... perhaps this one was a less hearty variety?

Shockingly, the fruit trees that made it through last summer have all come back, even the tender baby pomegranete. The espalliered pears are beautiful and blooming.

I won't know about the grapevines for a while yet; they wake up late, apparently.

Lost all or most of about six rosemary plants, some young and others very established.

Plants are ultimately a lot like people, I guess - it's hard to say what makes some stronger than others when times get difficult. Occasionally the ones who look so fragile surprise you, and sometimes the ones you think will be tough crack under pressure.