Posts tagged as:

mud_season

First Snowdrops: Status update

March 10, 2010

First snowdrops bloomed today *and* it got up to 61F. Yes, mud season is here!

Mud Season Chores: Cleaning up

March 24, 2009

I hate to admit it to you Southerners, but when the snow melts, what it invariably reveals is…a mess. I’m not just talking about the dead vegetation that needs to be cut back. There’s human-made messes that ought to be dealt with, too. But let’s talk about the plants first.
Cut back and clear out dead [...]

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Mud Season Chores: Pruning

March 22, 2009

Mud season, despite its fickle weather, not only has color, but its own set of gardening chores. For those of us living in cold climates, these chores anticipate the growth that will soon come as so many plants emerge from dormancy. Growth is so slow at the beginning of mud season that it is easy [...]

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Mud Season Color: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2009

March 15, 2009

As soon as the snow melts, before anything even blooms, there is color.If you are aware that some plants can grow underneath the snow, this is not a complete surprise, though I always marvel when it is an attractive garden plant that pulls this trick, and not just the tap-rooted and creeping weeds.

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Mud Season: A primer for newcomers and Southerners

March 10, 2009

Mud season has finally arrived. As I have had more contact with gardeners in other climates, I’ve come to realize that certain aspects of my climate are completely foreign to them, so I thought I’d explain mud season for those who have never encountered it. It will sound pretty elementary to my fellow cold climate [...]

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Why rain gauges break and plants heave

December 28, 2008

It was a balmy 57F out today, a pleasant change from last week’s snow, so I took a stroll around the garden to see what I could see. I saw the new growth of sedums at soil level, and I saw colchicums emerging from the earth, way too early as usual.I also saw the damage [...]

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Early spring blossoms: Crocus and snowdrops

March 24, 2008

The temperatures are still dropping into the teens every night (last night’s low: 17.5F or -8C) and even when the high hits 40F (4C) the brisk wind makes it feel chillier. But at least a hurried stroll around the premises is now rewarded with signs that Spring is slowly making inroads in Winter’s territory. These [...]

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First Sign of Spring, aka Grasping at Straws

March 5, 2008

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures
Maybe you can’t see it (go ahead and click on the photo for a closer look), but my eyes can see that the trees on the hillside have a definite reddish cast to them. This is reckoned as the first sign of spring here in Purdyville, or more properly, the [...]

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Plants grow under the snow

February 20, 2008

A couple of days ago, Mr. McGregor’s Daughter was speculating that my snowdrops might be blooming under the snow. I was pretty sure they weren’t, but I took advantage of Monday’s thaw to confirm my suspicions (photo above). There were quite a few more patches of snowdrops visible now, but none are near blooming yet. [...]

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The grass is green: Spring is here; Mud Season over

May 2, 2007

And though one has begun to search for signs of spring almost since January, and to receive them, like postcards sent on a long voyage to home, it is with the greening of the grass that spring has, finally, certainly arrived.
It wasn’t until I read A Year at North Hill : Four Seasons in a [...]

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One week later: Does this look like Spring to you?

April 24, 2007

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Does this look like spring to you?

April 17, 2007

This was the view out my kitchen door yesterday morning. We had rain which changed to snow as the day progressed. Because everything was wet, the heavy snow stuck to everything. When the wind picked up, the snow didn’t blow off the branches but added weight to the force of the wind. Consequently branches were [...]

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Pruning forsythia in mud season

April 10, 2007

The standard advice for pruning spring-blooming shrubs is to prune them no later than two weeks after they’re done blooming. This is because most spring-flowering shrubs, at least, all those commonly grown, develop their flower buds on the previous year’s wood. So if you prune them in high summer, or autumn, you are cutting off [...]

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