Cold Climate Gardening

Today I was infected with a virus called W32.Netsky.P@mm!enc. It arrived via an email sent to the address I have for this website. I download mail from that address with Thunderbird. As soon as the email was downloaded, Norton’s notified me that I had this virus. I hadn’t opened an attachment or even clicked on the email to read it. More disturbingly, Norton’s told me it couldn’t get rid of the virus because it wasn’t allowed access to the file! Eventually, by reading here and here, I discovered that I needed to close Thunderbird and disable Windows System Restore before Norton’s could eliminate the virus. Since this is technically a worm, which hunts for email addresses on the …

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Yes, folks, this is going to be a sad post. Better get out your Kleenex. *Sigh.* Particularly sad after last year’s broccoli, which was the most wonderful broccoli I’d ever had in my life, no kidding. That was amazing broccoli.

First we must set the stage. . .

After our terrible flooding (for most of which, I was out of state), and subsequent 80 degree weather (for most of which, I was out of state), we settled into one of the most glorious Springs I can remember. We typically do get Spring flooding, and we do typically have several days in April that are in the 80’s, or even break 90’s. But our typical Spring is cold and/or muddy–hence, Mud Season. Then there is one week of Spring, in which all of the trees leaf out, flowers bloom, etc. Sometimes Spring is followed by (or cut short by) a hard freeze, leading to no apple crops, and no lilac blooms. This one week of Spring is followed by Summer. Don’t blink, or you miss Spring.

But this year. . .! The daffodils are just finishing up, and the apple trees haven’t even opened yet! We actually have a Spring this year, with temperatures usually only in the upper 60’s, with that lovely Spring breeze, and plants are taking their turns.

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This is a continuation of the post started on May 4th.
Over the past couple of days it’s dawned on me that my plant acquiring habits have changed. When I started out gardening, I drew a map of my first bed to scale and decided on a color scheme. Then I looked through the catalogs and books at my disposal and picked out plants to fill the space. Then I bought them in three’s and sixes from Bluestone Perennials. Let me say right out front that there is nothing wrong with this approach, and I continue to recommend Bluestone to anyone who is just getting started gardening with perennials.

Nowadays I am much more likely to fall in love with a plant and then figure out where to put it. Said plant will be from a specialty nursery, the only one of its kind, choice, rare, etc. etc. and therefore quite pricey, so that, far from buying multiples, I agonize over buying just one. This is a reflection of where I am in my gardening life. I am not making new beds; in fact I struggle to maintain the ones I’ve already created. I’ve already got color schemes, some of which I’ve tired of. I’ve killed my share of plants, and even gotten rid of a very few that just didn’t suit me, which is about the only way I can justify buying more. The last garden bed I did make, I was more concerned about improving the soil as much as possible than what I would plant there. I knew I could fill the space easily by dividing what I already had, if nothing else turned up (which of course it did).

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Moosey’s has done what I have always dreamed of doing, but never had the skill or the time to pull off. They have assembled a collection of gardening newsfeeds in one convenient location for your perusal and enjoyment. If you don’t even want to know what an RSS feed is, much less set up a reader to aggregate them for you, mosey on over to Mooseys Gardening News Desk. At the top of the page on the right they have some general categories and the number of different sources in that category. For example, the Favourite Gardening Newsfeeds currently has 40 different feeds in it. Moosey’s gives me credit “for evangelising about gardening RSS feeds and her excellent …

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When I wrote about the bank garden in March, it was still winter. Now spring, with all her vagaries has come to Halcott, and of course that means mild breezes kissed by the warm sun, followed by cold stinging sleet. Ah, the duplicities of spring, the perfidies of prima vera! The bank was battered by a rainstorm on April 2nd that not only dislodged many of the pine logs from their moorings, but also washed away much of the soil they held up. It is an arrangement not yet perfected. I have replaced many of the logs with some ash trunks rescued from the side of the road that had been destined by the highway crew for the chipper. Ash is straighter and more enduring. Maybe.

But what of the plants? The daffodils as you can see, are still coming on. I cannot think of a better beginning to a cold-climate spring than the noble daffodil: golden harbinger of the gardening season. They have been blooming here since about April 18th, and I have some planted on the north side of a stone wall who have not yet even opened. They give brightness and joy for a good six weeks and when they finally turn to messy foliage, there is so much else going on around them that I don’t care. Nevertheless, it has not been the best spring for daffodils. They had a spell in April when the weather was so deceitfully warm that they burst forth too hurriedly. The next week some heavy wet snow bowed them to the ground. Daffodils are good sports, regaining consciousness as soon as the temps grow mild again, but no one can take such a battering without a little lessening of spirit… The bottom layer has been slow to bloom. These were the ones I put in last autumn, and in my experience, newly planted daffodils are always tardy the next spring.

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Okay, it wasn’t really Santa Claus. It was just the mail lady and the UPS man, bringing my two plant orders of the season on the same day. But I felt the same excitement I had felt as a kid on Christmas morning as I made my way down the stairs, wondering if Santa had brought me my heart’s desire.

Well, I knew my heart’s desire was in those boxes. Hadn’t I pored over catalogs, agonized over prices, and checked and rechecked my bank balance? Shoot, I even created some spreadsheets so that the total automatically incremented as I added each plant to the order. That’ll keep your feet grounded like nothing else will, believe me. The other big reality check is to have a column for where you’re going to plant each coveted botanical treasure.

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I started this post quite a while ago and it’s taken me this long to finish it, partly because I lacked time, and partly due to technical difficulties–we’ve been having a lot of trouble with our internet connection.

The first weekend in April our area experienced the worst flooding in 70 years. It was a combination of a lot of rain falling on, and melting, a lot of snow, over earth that was still frozen and couldn’t absorb it. From April 4th until this evening (April 22) it didn’t rain at all. We’ve had one of the most glorious Aprils I can remember, with lots of sunshine and warmer than average daytime temps. (Still got in the 20s (F) most every night, though.) Glorious, but dangerous. Until the thunderstorm moved in, there was a heightened fire threat in effect. From sopping wet to flammable in two and a half weeks. Incredible. Yet how much you want to bet people complain about the rain that’s now falling?

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