Fickle Spring, Ephemeral Beauty

It is cold, then hot, and this coming week will be cold again. Today my family helped me plant a few more things. I really appreciate it, since I don't have my strength back, yet; but they are getting a little tired of planting my trees and bushes with me. We put in a 'Fat Albert' Spruce which is quite blue and full looking. Then the China Boy holly, and a self-seeded lilac we dug up, along side another redbud. I put in two Andorra junipers.

I have thrown all caution to the wind. There was a time when I would not have planted such a blue colored spruce, and so many new things at one time. But I tell myself it will look wonderful in a couple years.

I have never been fully satisfied with this property, mainly because I have never had either the full confidence that I knew what meshed best with the land, but somewhat because I prefer forest land. Well, I am on my way to getting my preference if all these trees survive.

Ephemeral Beauty

Some plants do not contribute to the garden for the entire season, but they have such a special, lovely presence for their time that you don't want to be without them. Virginia Blue Bells, or Mertensia, is one of those plants. It is blooming now, under my dogwood and in the front garden. It likes it here and the green-y blue of the flowers with the fresh green balloons of leaves are so pretty. They have to be enjoyed for the short spring season because they are one of those plants that go dormant and disappear for the rest of the year. Hostas are perfect with them. They are just now unfurling some of their leaves and will provide a full cover of the Mertensia areas, plus they both like the same conditions. Mertensia has a wild beauty, but a flamboyant look at the same time.

The lily of the valleys are beginning to appear, with their curl of leaves. I received mine from my Mother's garden.. I think she got them from my grandfather's plantings. They will say "May" to me better than any other flower.

Today the garden was very fragrant, with the full bloom of the viburnums, the lilacs, and the crabapple trees, with the dames rocket starting to bloom throughout . My favorite is the apple's scent. Completely fresh, light, and sweet.

Some of my tulips are lost in the Charles de Mills rose briar patch. I am so sorry I didn't totally cut those stems down. I had no idea they would take over that bed the way they have. They will be gorgeous when they bloom, though.

Real Life Work is Priority #1

I have fun blogging, and lots of ideas to post, but the garden needs me ! It has been fairly bursting and it was not helping to visit the nurseries. I came home with some great buys on trees and just had to get those in. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, but I spent half of it in traffic and in the stores. So got right down to work on arrival home.

Two new little spruces, San Juan variety, are in the ground and an Eastern Hemlock. I have wanted one of those for so long. It is now ( happily, I hope) planted in my front yard. I much prefer these to spruces, but spruces do well here and their stiffly formal shape ( in their youths) are more preposessing for front yard landscapes. I am so tempted to go get another hemlock, though. The prices and plant material are very good this year. Makes me happy. I have had a restricted pocketbook for so many years that this year, with a little put by for plants, has been ....nice. I realize that as I age I just won't have time to see trees mature, so it is now for the planting of these lovely trees. Have I said enough that I love trees? I think they have personalities sometimes...although my own mind chides me when I think that way. ( But ,secretly, I do)

Viburnum Burkwoodi

This shrub is in its glory this year. It exploded into bloom on Saturday in the warm weather. It fairly sparkles with its fleshy pink bloom in little balls of individual flowers. Most years much of the bloom has been ruined by late frosts, but not this year. All the springtime trees and shrubs have looked spectacular. These Viburnums release their fragrance to the air, although I prefer the V. Carlesii, Korean Spice Viburnum. I have one of those, but it wasn't blooming yet- in a more shaded environment.

The Burkwoods are very tall and give the garden a screen from the road, a background from my sightpoint. They were among the first things I planted some twenty years ago now. Doesn't seem possible that I have gardened here so long. The prairie environment has been harsh, and exacted a tax from my garden efforts. The Burkwood Viburnums turned out to be a lasting investment. I grow them very free and well spaced. If you have a smaller space for them I think the Korean Spice is a better choice and lends itself to espalier.

Which Reminds Me

The pear tree also bloomed. Lavishly, and wildly. This was also planted long ago ...maybe the first thing with the apple trees. I moved it from its first place where it languished, and it has done well in its newer location. Pears take forever to bloom and fruit, it seems. That is why the idea of espalier reminded me - I think a pear would be best espaliered in a garden. Quicker fruit and it needs lots of pruning, anyway.

The blooms on it this year outstripped the cherries, by far. It was a bit later and the bloom of the cherries had blown, so maybe that is not a fair comparison. It is a dwarf variety that self-pollinates. Honey Sweet or something. I have never been much impressed with the fruit, but that is true of what I grow on this land. The tomatoes are not as good as those I used to grow either. Soil will produce different flavors in fruits and vegetables. Witness 'Vidalia' onions, etc. I don't know whether adding certain amendments would change that or not...something to research when I have time. yeah. Not any time soon. I still have a few trees ( I couldn't help it! Another Prairiefire crab, because they smelled soooo sweet in bloom, and a bald cypress...for I don't know why, just lack of control). Plus there is the China Boy holly to provide pollination for the China Girls. And .... well that is enough, I couldn't resist a couple small perennials ..... I must work in the garden tomorrow and get this all in the ground. The clock is ticking on the good weather and growing conditions.

For summer will be here soon enough, and I read in the Farmer's Almanac that we will have some hot dry months. I hope not.

Spring is Upon Thee

Charles Dickens

That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

For someone who thinks alot, I often think little of why I have balanced my life the way I have. I am often simply torn by desires and obligations into divvying up my time and energies. The garden calls, but I cannot answer nearly as much as I would like; and when I do, it is in a crush of work. I could list why I garden, but I am not sure what my final goal, in all of it, is. I like the earth. I like that it responds to my cultivation. Perhaps it is that simple.

The Garden is Burgeoning

The season suddenly heated up last weekend which caused a burst of flower and leaf. A bit hard on some of the fragile spring bloom, like the Magnolias, but the trees are all leafing out and everything is green.

My husband and daughter helped me plant the redbud trees, finally, last week. I decided to situate them near the spruce trees. They will be happy there, and in looking at other landscapes I think the redbud is a little wild and architectural for placing with the symmetrical crabtree plantings.

The Burkwoodi Viburnums are on the verge of bloom, they still have tight flesh colored buds, but after this weeks rain I expect them to open. The Amelanchiers are blooming, they never last very long, though. The quince bushes ( chaenomeles ) are blooming, but they seem to be having that hidden sort of bloom that the honeysuckles suffered from. Strange. For the cold to have damaged their bloom, but to have spared the rosebushes doesn't seem probable; but they are more exposed.

Those chaenomeles were supposed to have been 'Jet Trail', but I think I either bought unmarked ones, or settled for the red 'Texas Scarlet'. I know I bought them on sale at the end of the season. The nice thing about this cultivar is that it has a low profile and a beautiful shape. I am very happy with them, even though it means that I don't have an all-white scheme in the driveway plantings. Most of the quinces have a very bright color that carries visually. Like the burning bush, Euonymous alata, in the fall, it draws the eye. Not so much when the flowers are hidden like this year, but when the bush is fully in bloom.

My bright red tulips are blooming, as well. I think they are "Eisenhower". I planted those because they tend to be perennial, and I planted alot of them, so they hold the stage even with quinces around. The sweet cherry trees bloomed with the heat of the weekend. They are like puffs of clouds when they bloom, but I like the apple bloom better, the fragrance is sweeter.

I like having fruit trees in the yard. The birds especially like it..... and beat me to the fruit most years. I saw a pair of brown thrashers by the apple trees. Haven't seen those for a few years - they are interesting birds. I am wishing to see a Baltimore Oriole again. The last time was when I first moved here, so maybe it was one of those freak appearances. I haven't seen bluebirds for several years either, but I now have cardinals...at least I did last year.

It is hard to say why the bird population changes so much. Blue Jays were decimated by the Nile virus, I think, but probably most others are finding their habitats changed by the growing amount of development in the county.
I wish I could keep the area rural .... but that isn't possible.

The garden is ahead of me again this year, which is not at all surprising. If I were wise I would let it pass me by as I leisurely go about my business, but given my history I will likely run after it in a mad chase to catch up. After all, the Midwestern summer cometh, when no man ( in his right mind) can work.

But then I have often said to myself that Midwestern Gardeners are like mad dogs and Englishmen who don't enough to come in out of the punishing sun. And the wilting humidity. And the mosquitoes. Midday mosquitoes.

All right. You get the picture. Work while it is day. OK, so I was in the mood for cliches and quotes.

Le Dent de Lion

I saw the first sprinkle of dandelions blooming in my lawn. Of course, I have been well aware of their presence, since their spreading sunburst of leaves have been burgeoning along quite hardily all season. I have already paid my little girl for a couple buckets worth that she has dug from the gardens.

Dandelions are an European import that grew to love America. If it weren't so weedy we would love many of its fine qualities. It does make a nice salad in the early spring. So if you have any pesticide/herbicide free areas where dandelions have taken root, you may want to harvest the newest young leaves, make a warm bacon-vinaigrette dressing and eat a healthful salad. The leaves are a bit bitter, like endive. Often dandelions are used in herbal concoctions because of their diuretic properties. They are high in Potassium, as well. Part of a spring tonic regimen, if you like.

I notice that if you have a strong stand of grass, dandelions aren't as prolific, but that doesn't mean that your lawn is free of them. Using the 'asparagus fork' type of tool to root them out is great for as large an area as you have the time and energy to spare.

When I was a little girl there was a city space -sort of like a wide shallow depression that was filled with golden yellow dandelion bloom in the spring. I loved it when my mom took me there and I made dandelion garlands and garnished my chin with enough golden pollen to make me glow in the dark! I still like to see a field of dandelion flowers ...it's cheerful.

But I don't like them in my flower beds.

Strengthening Those Loins

Or "Are Fifty-something Women Meant for This?" I did work yesterday. I definitely did; and paid dearly in terms of body pain. I thought I was fine til I sat down for the evening. Oh My.

I don't believe God meant for fifty something women to climb trees and saw out 4 inch diameter branches. I think that is what did me in.

Well, the apple trees are on the way to pruned ...perfection would be alliterate but not accurate.... pruned improvement, there you go. Almost done.

The garden is really amazing the way it wakes up at this time of year. All of a sudden, so many things are blooming. I have one more tree hole ready ( that was also from yesterday's toil), and the children helped me gather more stones for something I am doing at the driveway entrance. We moved some wet bales of hay in readiness to place the railroad ties as more permanent soil retainers. And I checked on the spruce tree that looks very worrisome to me. I must get the soggy soil off its roots and hopefully it is not too late. I am sure I will know by this summer. I am already planning replacement trees to be put in front of it. That is not exactly faith, is it? Nope, that is called foresight ;)

I have already gardened this morning while the kids did their math. I pruned some more in the apple trees and took out some minor branches from the ash trees in the back field. Just some annoying ones that bother me when I mow back there. They were cake compared to the apple venture. But now my apple trees look more like orchard trees, instead of hedgerows. Did you ever stop to think that when fruit trees are pruned for fruitfulness that they are made to weep? Tis true. Their shapes are bent in weeping form and all the sprouts that rise so straight and proud are made to bend or be taken away altogether.

On my apples anyway. The cherries are a bit different. They are simply opened up. And the peaches are massively cut back. You can't let peaches get away from you.......

Such is the way of fruitfulness.

=====
When I went outside this morning it was after the rain of last night; the smell of the ground was so wonderful. It makes everything seem promising and feel so right. Sometimes I forget, in all the work and list of jobs, how healing a place a garden can be. But I remembered, today.

metamorphine - horticulture section

metamorphine - horticulture section is a blog I found in my referrers section. It is written in German so I don't understand a word, but you can appreciate the beautiful photos in any language. Worth the look-see for that alone!

And if you understand German, it looks like a goldmine ( of info, of course).

Now I am out to the garden..... a pretty day full of promises.

Wildflowers

Today we took a walk in the park, checking out the wildflowers. It was a peaceful time with few people, some joggers and some birders mainly. The woods are fairly sparse at this time of year, with only the buckeyes sprouting leaves and the rustle of old foliage on young beech trees.

It was a beautiful day to be out, and the post winter landscape clearly shows the history of the land. Like many parks in central Ohio this was first woodland, and then cleared farmland and now given over to regrowth. You can tell the old fenceline trees by their size, and the horizontal scars on their trunks. This particular park has the same sort of land that I used to garden on in the city. This type of woodland is a clay over shale profile. Often the creeks are pretty with layered shelving of slate and shale. The wildflowers that were blooming at this time were mainly Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), and Claytonias (Springbeauty). Trilliums were leafed out but not quite blooming, and the Dutchman's Breeches ( Dicentra) were just starting to open. There were others that were in bud, but I don't quite know what they are until they bloom.

I know Claytonias bloom around here so maybe I can have a bit of wildflower plot sometime. I tried it once and lost all to drought. But now I have some sheltered areas that grow ferns around the little pond. Maybe I could start something there. This time I would want sure success. But this year I am concentrating on trees rather than herbaceous things.

I hope to have opportunity to work outside this week, it seems to be finally warming a bit, but the ground is still too wet to work well.

brrrrr

It is just plain cold here in Ohio. Just plain toooo cold. I was thinking the other day about how the days and the temperatures affect our moods. Especially the mood to work in the garden.

Now, dedicated gardeners mostly ignore those flighty feelings, but we are all given to it sometime or other. The flesh is weak, babe.

But get some of that sunshine going, and the birds chirping a cheerful song, and off we go to the garden. Any old excuse will do in those circumstances. I think I am waiting for that. Surefire motivation.

The only problem being - of course - that the jobs are piled up with more than the hours of the day will afford. Oh well, who am I doing this for anyway?

That brings me to garden furniture. Every garden needs a bench, or two, or three. Or chairs. One of the great pleasures of working til the bones won't take anymore is to sit in a nearby seat and enjoy the fruit of your labors. And if some kind soul will bring you a glass of lemonade.... well that is close to paradise.

Then it is usually back to work. HA!

I like to have seats in chosen places for enjoying a quiet talk, or just a time-out from the day in solitude. My favored style is Andirondack, and I have several around the yard. I have some movable resin plastic types and some in wood(heavier and not very movable). The trouble with the lighter type is that my kids play a game of musical moves to far-off places where this gardener does not feel like going. So I like the stay-put wood garden furniture. Oil it for the season and you are set.

I haven't done this, but if I had the time and felt creative, I think I would make a seating area with board seats and concrete block. But I wouldn't leave the concrete block looking bare and industrial. I would apply a mix of tuffa to it and try to make it look rustic. Sounds like a good idea. I suppose the worst that could happen is that it would look like a child's mudpie nightmare, but it sounds promising and fun. It would be inexpensive, and that appeals to me.

Getting Down To Business

Here is my garden work survey, from viewing the garden this year:

Weeding

lots of switch grass coming up -as usual- front main perennial bed most in need of attention

* also remove from around magnolia, dig up whole section of sweet woodruff to take rye grass out and replant woodruff.

Dandelions -mainly around Fringetree and by walkway. Use roundup in between the stones.

Edge all beds

* consider buying better edger

Dig / Divide/ Replant

Dianthus replanted along drive

Achillea along main border

Strawberries in veg. garden

Roaming Therese rose.

* take out extras and plant elsewhere in yard

Dig out layered Viburnum starts, replant in roadside areas

Make more lavender starts

put phlox starts in driveway bed, experimentally

get ivy or vinca starts for around sweet gum trees

Move rosa rugosa ' Blanc Double Coubert' this year

remove tree start from side garden bed and replant in back field

Place some lamium upfront along driveway rocks

move self-started lilac from under fir tree

Pruning

finish other two apples

pear

cut back clematis

lonicera

trim up weeping willow

open up between the large arborvitaes

Other

mulch

till veg garden

clean pond for season

Obviously, I am going to have to pay my children to help this year, if I hope to do this and the porch's extra jobs.

I'll see how I do.

===== a few words on roundup=====

I am not a purist. I do garden organically for the larger part, but on occasion I will use something like spots of roundup for hard to reach weeds in between the walkway stones. It saves lots of time and it is in a very limited amount. If one is sensitive to the gardens needs, I don't think that much in the way of chemicals is ever needed.

Chemicals are usually needed when the gardener is not working with the nature of their location. Ditto for uncontrolled demand on water resources. Modern life creates a tension that former times did not know. We are sold ideals of perfect plants and fruit and limited in the manpower to produce them. That creates demand for artificial means. At some point we have to delete some of the unrealistic ideals that come from importing other climate garden styles and results into unfriendly locales. At some point we must embrace clover and some lawn weeds rather than velvet swards of unnatural greens. Or we will escalate the stress upon our environment.

I am always for moderation in such things. I find that is the only sustainable answer. Man will not abide tight restrictions of extremity. Not a "good" extremity any more than anything else.

But moderation of our dreams and desires will produce a larger body of responsibility. And that is really what we want, after all.

A well-stewarded earth. Reasonable people. Peace in the garden.

Yes?