Irises Be Gone

Irises are one of my favorite flowers so I was pretty excited when our backyard bloomed purple during the first spring in our house. So for 2 weeks in late May, here's what the backyard looks like.

For the rest of the summer, our backyard is less purple and less pretty. The greenery has gotten progressively unruly during the last couple of years. On top of that, we learned the hard way these suckers don't take kindly to pruning. Ick, messy...

As much as I love irises, the unattended yard look was driving me mad,  so we cleared them out. In its place, we planted a few sprigs of salvia – as not to give up on the purple entirely. We'll add more ground cover next spring but for now we'll enjoy this clean, minamalist feel.

I'll still take irises in a vase anyday!