This time of year is the time of excited hope as we look out at our slowly- emerging gardens: the snow is melting, and we can see clumps of our perennials’ stems and branches. Hopefully they all made it through the winter in fine form. We’ll see in the coming weeks. But for now, we see clean-up work ahead. As the pristine white snow melts, we are left with dusty and dirty drifts of snow along the edges of the garden, flattened and grimy leaves, and the gritty look that all gardens have first thing in the spring. We know a good cleaning will get rid of it, and if we are blessed to have some nice gentle rain, that will help a lot, too.