Mud Season

Come Tour The Secret Garden With Me

– Posted in: Mud Season, The Secret Garden

I've been fascinated with secret gardens ever since I read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My favorite part is when Mary finds the key and enters the secret garden for the first time. My garden isn't very secret until the trees leaf out, but it still feels secluded and special. I'm in a different world when I'm there. Come join me!

The First Blooms of 2019

– Posted in: Mud Season, What's up/blooming

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Thank goodness my “desperate measures” are already in place. I’ve been planting early blooming bulbs where the snow melts first for several years. And every time the snow starts to melt, I check all those places for signs of emerging sprouts. Do you want to see what I found during our most recent thaw? It's easier than you think to have flowers blooming sooner than your neighbors.

Crocuses: Plant The Earliest Flowers Where The Snow Melts First

– Posted in: Mud Season, The Earliest Flowers, What's up/blooming

Crocuses. I bet you think you know all about them, but I have some crocuses you've never heard of. And do you grow them in the lawn? Yes, squirrels eat them for some people, but not me. They are too busy eating the bird seed I put out for the birds. This is the third in my series about planting the earliest blooming bulbs where the snow melts first. Click over and read it!

Snowdrops: Plant The Earliest Flowers Where The Snow Melts First

– Posted in: Mud Season, The Earliest Flowers, What's up/blooming

Snowdrops are tied with winter aconites for the prize of very-first-bloom. They have become quite the "it" flower and single bulbs of rare cultivars can go for breathtaking prices. But save your breath and your pocketbook and invest in the varieties that multiply quickly, such as those described in my post. Buy a few and pretty soon you'll have enough to make a patch. And a patch will be visible from inside the house. Just sayin'. Click over to my blog and read all about them.

Winter Aconites: Plant The Earliest Flowers Where The Snow Melts First

– Posted in: Mud Season, The Earliest Flowers, What's up/blooming

This spring has tested the hardiness of my hardy soul. I bet it's tested yours, too, especially if you live in the Northern Plains and parts east that were bombarded by "Winter Storm Xanto". In light of what my fellow cold climate gardeners are enduring, I'm not going to complain about my weather, which seems [...]

The Earliest Blooming Native Flower

– Posted in: Mud Season, Native/Invasive

The earliest blooming flower in my garden is a snowdrop, Galanthus 'S. Arnott'. The earliest blooming wild flower is coltsfoot. But the earliest blooming native flower? For that, you have to look up. Way up. Because the earliest blooming native flower belongs to the red maple, Acer rubrum. I am always looking down at the [...]

Tartarian Honeysuckle Chokes Out Spring Ephemerals

– Posted in: Garden chores, Mud Season, Native/Invasive

One lesson I learned from Sara Stein, author of Noah's Garden and Planting Noah's Garden, was that non-native (also called alien) plants typically start growing and blooming before the native plants--at least in North America. That is because the climate they originally came from was milder, or warmed up gradually and consistently, and that is [...]