Cold Climate Gardening

As I’ve mentioned already, I’m perpetually behind on my weeding. Really behind. I decided I’d share my techniques with all of you, in case you find yourself up against a flower bed that’s really been let go too long.

Make it easy on yourself.
Make sure the bed is moist, either from recent rainfall or from supplemental irrigation. Set aside a couple of hours so you can go at a relaxed pace, and avoid the hottest part of the day. If the location is in shade for part of the day, try to weed then. It will be easier on you and the plants.

Equip yourself properly.
You’ll be going after some really big weeds, and a little hand cultivator just won’t cut it. Make sure you have a garden fork and a serious trowel, as well as leather gloves for the prickly weeds. Slather yourself with sunblock, wear a hat, and bring a drink.

Pace the work.
Be realistic. You’re probably not going to get it all done in one day, but you want it to look better than when you started, right? This is where the triage comes in. Take it from me, it is better to go after one particular weed, or one type of weed, throughout the whole bed, than it is to focus on one square foot and get every single weed.

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. . . so far. This past week we’ve enjoyed a heavenly mix of Narcissus poeticus, apple blossoms, and lilacs floating on the air. Indeed, I can’t remember the lilacs looking more spectacular. We haven’t had frost since the first week of May. But there is a frost advisory in effect tonight. We have lost entire apple crops in the past, due to the flowers getting frosted. My understanding is that if they are already fertilized, they will still produce apples. Some flowers have already dropped their petals, so I think at least those flowers will become apples. If it is a light frost, I think the lilacs will be okay. And the narcissus are pretty tough. I might try …

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Oh, dear. I seem to have a lot more seedlings on my hands than I had planned for. Most of the seeds I was using were old–the newest stuff was at least 3 years old, and some was a lot older. So I figured most of it wouldn’t sprout, and started a good deal more than I thought I could plant. After all, I was planning on, at most, about half of them sprouting. How wrong I was! Now I’m buried in seedlings, as most of the seeds seem to have been only biding their time until the conditions were right. I have flats and flats of seedlings, more seedlings than I can count. Some things I have planted out already–around a hundred Snapdragons, for instance. Other things I have been frantically trying to keep from wilting, or I have been trying to harden off. Everything seems to need potting on at the same time. Needless to say, I have been kept busy.

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There is a sweet little flower (Polygala paucifolia) that blooms in our woods about the same time as the trilliums. It is called Fringed Polygala, which doesn’t do justice to the plant, but also Gaywings, which captures the essence of the flowers better. You could almost call them funny; they look like little hot pink airplane propellers. Go here to see a photograph of this diminuitive charmer. Saturday morning, my daughter says to me, “Mom, if you don’t walk up the hill today, you’re gonna miss the gaywings this year. And I saw some white-flowered ones this year.”

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The lilacs are flowering, the robins nesting, the roses budding, the orchids in the woods by the shop budding, –and it is snowing like mad. Another spring day brought to us by north Idaho. Keeps me on my toes ferrying tender plants in & out of the greenhouse–the canary bird and morning glory vines really resent freezing but if I don’t start them early I have to wait a very long time to see them flower briefly before the frost takes them.

It has been incredibly windy for several days now and if wind strengthens the stems of plants then mine should be able to lift weights soon.
The sun has just come out but there …

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Innes Kasanof, a gardener in the Catskills, recently emailed Joan Kutcher, director of the Mountain Top Arboretum regarding the Stewartia growing there. Joan informed her, “Stewartia pseudocamillia . . . is a gorgeous tree with a moderate growth rate. Full or part sun, protect from very windy conditions. Likes a spot that is a bit moist and has plenty of organic slightly acidic soil. Makes a great specimen tree, planted toward the edge of a woodland to give it some protection.” The Mountain Top Arboretum is in the Catskills, but I don’t know exactly what zone they are in, and their website doesn’t say. Thank you, Innes, for sharing this info, and alerting me to another good plant …

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When we last visited our heroine, she had just finished planting most of the order from Paradise Gardens Rare Plant Nursery. You can read about it here. Let’s rejoin the Intrepid Gardener as she continues her tale . . .

I wanted to plant the double white soapwort in what I call the Purple-and-Gold bed, which is really purple, gold, and white, only that’s too ungainly to say. This bed started out as a place to put all the plants my husband hacked out of the frozen earth of our mobile home lot shortly before our lease ran out.

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