Winter Spring Cleaning

My Purple Heart nearly taken over by Oxalis.

The temperatures over the last week or so have ranged from the 40s at night to the 80s during the day.  That's perfect weather for Aaron and I to start working on a huge list of garden-related chores.  Right now it's 82 out and I couldn't help but do some spring winter cleaning.  The list of yard chores includes:

-new flower bed digging and planting
-removal of some plants that were planted in bad places by the previous owners
-fruit tree pruning
-weeding (we're overrun by Buttercup oxalis, aka Bermuda Buttercup, aka Demon Weed - no joke!)
-moving a few plants from one spot to another
-moving the compost bin
-moving the herbs closer to the house
-planting a tree in the front yard (I think we're going with a Peppermint Willow, aka Australian Willow Myrtle!  I'm really excited about this one!)
-pulling out the old tomato plants (Would you believe they're still fruiting?!)
-washing the back patio of persimmon muck
and
-some major pruning of plants gone wild.

One of the Lantana I heavily pruned and the pile of trimmings.

Today I got most of the plant pruning done (not counting the fruit trees); I went to town on some wily Lantana and cut out an old Holly tree/bush that wasn't doing it for me.  The compost bin will eventually be moved to the spot where the Holly once stood.  I also did a bit of weed removal and did the initial spray-down of the back patio.  The persimmons that had fallen had also began baking onto the patio and table creating a kind of fruit leather-ish mess spread across the pavers, rocks and table.  I worked at it for a while, but will have to have another go at it at a later date.

The (mostly) cut down Holly tree/bush.

While this weather is amazing for yard work I am mourning the loss of our winter season.  Hopefully the weather will revert back to winter over the next few months; this girl needs her four seasons!

Happy gardening!  And here's hoping we get most of the chores done before real spring is upon us!