Irises: Spring Cleanup who's with me? , 1 by critterologist

critterologist wrote:
Since my article on spring cleanup and borer control for TB irises was posted today (http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/832/), I decided I'd better get my tail out back to my own iris bed! It would be pretty pathetic after all if I adopted a "do as I say not as I do" attitude and failed to head off a potential iris borer invasion out there. I'm still recovering from a bug, so I worked slowly, but I got about half the iris area cleared away. :-)

I'm not sure what to do about the part of the bed where the groundcover has become pretty well established. I'm seeing how well irises will coexist with Lamium -- so far, so good. I think it's got a loose enough habit that air circulation around the rhizome isn't an issue. I'm going to clear it back from the clumps of iris a little... and I'll hope that borers haven't laid eggs in it! Well, I guess that's another reason to follow up with Grub-X (imidacloprid) next week.

Who else is out there with me, clearing away the winter debris and admiring the little spring sprouts?

(this is the iris in the thumbnail photo at the top of my article... after a little cleanup effort!)