{"id":86,"date":"2008-03-24T05:11:57","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T13:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=86"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:24","slug":"spring-breezes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/spring-breezes\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Breezes"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPRING BREEZES
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have had so much wind this year that spring didn’t just arrive; it blew in with a vengeance.\u00a0 Of course all those blustery gusts might also have been winter blowing its way out–only a meteorologist would know for sure.\u00a0 One thing does seem certain–if the gales keep up, the robins and other nest-building birds are going to have to secure those nests with Crazy Glue.\u00a0 Fortunately the winds haven’t affected the flowers, which are popping up from the earth.\u00a0 The great spring gardening marathon has started. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In my yard the hellebores are blooming, alongside the snowdrops and crocuses.\u00a0 The Jasminum nudiflorum or winter blooming jasmine is covered with tiny, trumpet-shaped yellow flowers.\u00a0 The daffodils, tulips and hyacinths are two or three inches tall, depending on their bloom times.\u00a0 Just yesterday a clutch of beautiful little Iris reticulata ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ burst into bloom.\u00a0 If you don’t have any of these, make a note to yourself to buy some next fall.\u00a0 They are perfect miniature iris, only about three inches tall, with pale blue petals and yellow throats marked with delicate dark veins and freckles.\u00a0 ‘Katharine’ and her miniature iris cousins are dirt cheap, so you can invest in enough to make an impressive display.\u00a0 They are great for containers too.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The most pressing task in my garden is undoing the wind’s ravages and clearing away debris, dead leaves and sticks, especially in areas where the spring blooming plants are struggling to push through.\u00a0 I have already cleared out around the hellebores and cut off all the raggedy old leaves that obscure the flowers and fresh spring growth.\u00a0 While I was clipping the old leaves it occurred to me that this is one housekeeping detail the merchandisers never mention when you buy these increasingly fashionable plants.\u00a0 The nodding flowers are so striking that it is a shame to have them camouflaged by big, winter-worn leaves.\u00a0 Grooming the plants isn’t hard and the rewards are immediate.\u00a0 If you accidentally clip off one of the flowers, just bring it inside and float it in a saucer of water.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many things change every year in my garden, but one thing remains constant–the groundhog.\u00a0 This spring, while I was tied up with other business, he had the nerve to dig one of his large holes in the raised bed right alongside my garage.\u00a0 When I discovered this outrage I had visions of hundreds of groundhogs digging a network of tunnels under the garage.\u00a0 Now every time I change the cat boxes, I dump the used litter into the hole.\u00a0 This is a method that has discouraged the groundhog–at least for a while–in the past.\u00a0 Since we have an endless supply of used cat litter, I figure that we can continue this guerilla warfare for as long as it takes.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once I have dealt with the most pressing of the debris-clearing chores and launched the groundhog deterrence campaign, I will get on with the business of clipping back all the shrubs.\u00a0 The roses necessarily go first, since they have already broken dormancy.\u00a0 They bloomed for so long last fall that I postponed cutting some of them back in the hopes of getting just a few more flowers.\u00a0 I got them, but now I also have to contend with the overgrown canes.\u00a0 Mighty trees have been felled by the howling winter winds, but somehow every one of my untrimmed rosebushes still has all of its overgrown canes.\u00a0 There must be some law of nature at work here, but I can’t figure out what it is.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Several of my butterfly bushes also need an annual trim.\u00a0 Fortunately this will not affect flowering, as they don’t really get going until late spring.\u00a0 Mine also grow like weeds, so the pruning will only make them fuller in appearance and more floriferous.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Onion grass is as eternal as the groundhog and just as hard to get rid of.\u00a0 Along with chickweed, onion grass is the bane of my existence in the spring.\u00a0 If I could only refine it into bio-fuel I would be rich.\u00a0 As it is, I dig it up religiously, then watch in amazement as devilish new clumps spring up overnight.\u00a0 By the end of spring every year I have made peace with onion grass, having pulled out about a ton of it and lopped off the rest with the lawn mower.\u00a0 I expect that the same thing will happen this year.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps the unusually high number of winter wind storms also blew us off kilter in the political, social and economic realms.\u00a0 It certainly seems so.\u00a0 At any rate, it’s a relief to turn off the news, put on a sweater and go out into the garden.\u00a0 In my yard the little white lilac that was so badly afflicted with mildew last year is making a strong recovery.\u00a0 The young, yellow-flowered magnolia that went in last spring has set lots of buds and the pulmonaria are preparing to pepper the ground with cobalt blue flowers.\u00a0 Even the groundhog and the onion grass contribute to the seasonal rhythm.\u00a0 Outside good things are happening every day and renewal is constant.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPRING BREEZES \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have had so much wind this year that spring didn’t just arrive; it blew in with a vengeance.\u00a0 Of course all those blustery gusts might also have been winter blowing its way out–only a meteorologist would know for sure.\u00a0 One thing does seem certain–if the gales keep up, the robins and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1694,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}