Frosty spring has hidden delights
All this cold weather has been a boon for bulbs
Unplugged Anton dropped a note in my mailbox. It was handwritten and full of updates about gardens around his part of the city near Gage Park.
I wrote about Anton’s inventive garden three years ago, and it’s always good to get an update.
The bluebell season has never been better, Anton wrote. But they’re finished now and its time to collect the seeds to spread the joy elsewhere.
Likewise, the splash of colour from tulips and daffodils has rarely been better. The cool weather — a bummer for a lot of people — is a boon for bulbs. I know the daffodils blooming in pots at the front door have looked fresh for a month.
Anton the gardener reminds us that now is the time to dig up hostas for sharing, or if clumps are too big.
“They do well in pots, too, and can be moved around the garden as your design ideas change.”
It’s rare to get a handwritten note in the mail. Mostly the mailbox is stuffed with flyers for budget cremation services or “we buy houses for cash” scribbled on cardboard.
So thanks “anti-social media” Anton, for your thoughts.
I agree with that hosta advice. A big plump hosta in a handsome pot makes a statement. And it’s a lot cheaper to divide your hostas and spread them around, then to buy new ones.
Spring has been stubborn to unfold. With snow on the weekend and icy winds for days, the idle stroll, or contemplative pause has been put on hold.
Brooding is fine though. I’ve been brooding about plants that smother other plants. At some point in garden history I thought pachysandra and ivy would be fine for hard to reach areas of the garden with bone breaking terrain.
Now I see that blasted ivy snaking through daylillies and salvias. It’s vile. The pachysandra threatens to swamp the beautiful sweet woodruff. It spreads like a tapeworm and has to be vigorously yanked out of the ground.
I’ve been ruminating over yard waste, too. Only so much can be composted in a tiny yard, so the rest gets packed into bags for the city to collect. I’m trying to reduce that. In some areas I’m tucking dead leaves from daylillies and hostas in among the plants, and hoping the new foliage covers the old stuff.
One method of making your own mulch from yard waste didn’t work as advertised. I tried putting leaves and clippings into a garbage can and chopping them up with a weed whipper. They just spun around and made a funnel cloud of dust before I gave up. Maybe anti-social media Anton has an idea about that?
At least five weeks ago, I seeded kale and mustard greens, and only now have the seeds germinated. In my mind I was going to be harvesting a dooryard salad within a week. The worries over weather, pests and diseases for the home gardener just hints at what farmers have to stew about.
Aren’t we lucky though to have magnolia trees to love right now and serviceberry trees are in serious bloom. That’s a tree with so many good traits, fall colour, berries, blooms, that everyone should plant one. In June they will be alive with cedar waxwings.
The confusingly named eastern red cedar, which is really a juniper, is another fine plant for the garden. The berries are feeding red-winged blackbirds right now, also mockingbirds and robins. It is tolerant of drought and rocky soil and has striking bark.
Every year at this time, I’m happy to have epimedium in the garden. This drought tolerant ground cover produces little yellow or pink flowers depending on the variety and is fine in shade as well. The foliage is strong and seems resistant to attack by bugs.
We are on our way to warmer weather, conducive to contemplation.