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, [...]
spring
Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Spring
May 13, 2007 – Posted in: MeditationsSights One of the many good things about spring is that without it, and without the absence imposed by fall and winter, we flawed mortals might fail to appreciate the beauties around us. So much of the wonder of spring is found in the return of what was absent. Would the appearance of new leaves [...]
Juneberries, the northern garden’s answer to flowering dogwood
May 11, 2007 – Posted in: Plant infoI spent my childhood in climates where the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) flourished, and I loved its elegant simplicity. When we moved here, I was dismayed but not surprised when my new neighbor told me that she had twice planted a flowering dogwood in a protected corner of her house, and twice it had died. [...]
Spring madness: Search and rescue
May 8, 2007 – Posted in: How-toIf you are short on time, energy, and money, but notably the first two, be conservative. You'll be more pleased with one fair-sized, well-composed, well-maintained bed than with a half-dozen large beds that are choked with quack grass and creeping Charlie. That's excellent advice from The Complete Flower Gardener by Karan Davis Cutler and Barbara [...]
The grass is green: Spring is here; Mud Season over
May 2, 2007 – Posted in: Mud SeasonAnd 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 [...]
Pruning strategy for forsythia
April 27, 2007 – Posted in: Forsythia, How-to, Plant infoRemember the forsythia I pruned so that I could force some branches? It doesn't look so floriferous out in the open, does it? (For comparison, check out the forsythias here.) When I'm faced with a plant that's not doing as well as expected, I try to analyze the situation before taking action. In the case [...]
One week later: Does this look like Spring to you?
April 24, 2007 – Posted in: MiscellaneousIt took a mere seven days to shed that foot of snow and get back to our regularly scheduled program.Snow in April is really a joke. There is no way it can win, though it can cause damage.And it has been instrumental in teaching this gardener patience and perseverance. If I knew the Latin for [...]
Does this look like spring to you?
April 17, 2007 – Posted in: MiscellaneousThis 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 [...]
April Blooms: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day
April 15, 2007 – Posted in: MiscellaneousIn contrast to what gardeners in many other parts of the country have endured, where Spring arrived in full force, only to be slapped down by Winter's last stand, Spring has not really made its grand entrance. It's only been peeking through the window, wondering if it really wants to come in. The snowdrops are [...]
Spring is just around the corner
March 6, 2007 – Posted in: Meditations, Mud SeasonThe trouble with that platitude is that Spring is so erratic around here that we often don't recognize it when it comes. For the next eight weeks or so, every time we hit a spell of bad weather, we will repeat to ourselves, and each other, "Well, spring is right around the corner." But we're [...]
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