Cold Climate Gardening

From this space, roughly five feet wide by six feet deep . . . . . . I dug out all these dock roots (that’s a 15-inch ruler) . . . plus this wagon full of rocks . . .plus these additional weed roots, mostly goldenrod

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Is there anyone in North America not having an atypical winter? These twigs were photographed by Justin in January. After I took the photos for the preceding post the first Saturday in February, I was able to spend a good two hours weeding before being chased inside by rain. For those of you who live in warmer climes and may not understand the significance of this, normally in February the ground is frozen solid. Attempting to pull weeds is usually akin to pulling plants out of stone, assuming the leaves themselves aren’t frozen to the earth, and your gloves provide enough dexterity to grasp the plant while still keeping warmth in your fingers. And rain? In February? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Surely you jest.

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Last Saturday and this one I weeded the patio bed, each time just enough to get one of my potted plants into the ground. Last week it was Molinia caerulea ‘Variegata,’ and today it was Polemonium caeruleum ‘Brise d’Anjou.’ Both of these have yellow variegation in the foliage which I intend to complement the flowers of the Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis) already there.

Anyway, as I was weeding last week, several thoughts popped into my head in the form of riddles:

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I weeded half the asparagus bed yesterday. It hadn’t been weeded at all this season because of my hospital stay and then Deirdre being born, and since it hadn’t been weeded it was never mulched. The asparagus seem to be doing okay despite the neglect, although some are leaning way over, which makes me think their roots weren’t buried deeply enough. I bought my plants from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, so you’d think they’d be hardy, but these first two years that they’ve been in the ground, the first sprouts have been knocked down by hard frost–maybe I should say a hard freeze. Of course, we have been having exceptionally cold frosts exceptionally late in the season. Almost all the …

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We got rain last weekend, but not near enough to help the garden. I keep waiting for the soil to get truly soaked through before doing any weeding. Sometime soon I expect to get a delivery of two peonies, and I’d love to plant them in well-watered ground. But according to the Drought Monitor, we aren’t doing nearly as bad as many other parts of the country. Hard to imagine.

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