With all the gorgeous weather we've been having these past couple weeks, I can not keep myself out of my beds. Even as I work I keep telling myself, "It's only January, you could have a freeze any time over the next month." But then I look at the forecast and think, "Nothing below 45F for the next two weeks. Shut up, Brain."

Mostly I have just been pulling weeds and transplanting/removing plants. So far I have managed not to plant out seedlings (ignore that bank of red salvia!) and I keep fighting the urge to rake back the protective leaf layer from my tropical bed or remove the old layers from my bananas. I did, however, rake back the leaves I had piled into the shrub bed so that any reseeds could go ahead and get started (as well as plant out a bank of red salvia seedlings). I also completely gutted my daughter's old butterfly garden bed and put in a Princess Flower. She has a new corner to build her butterfly garden in as the bed I gutted just wasn't attracting butterflies. Lots of nectar plants growing, there was just something about the location they didn't seem to like.

Now that I look at my forecast and see that tomorrow night as well as Monday night to Thursday night temps could hover around 38-40F, I'm glad I haven't gone too wild in my cleaning. However, I still find myself grabbing my spade, pruners and gloves and heading out the door. In my shorts and sandals... My friends up north are hating me on Facebook right now...