This week I watched the tulips and crocuses jump out one by one in my front flower patch. Two yellow crocuses started to open.
This week I watched the tulips and crocuses jump out one by one in my front flower patch. Two yellow crocuses started to open. Then on Thursday, with gloomy skies and snow, the inch-tall flowers wisely hunkered down against the soil and appeared to wrap a brown protective cloak around the blossoms. Wise beyond human understanding, they have the ability to wait for sunshine.
I can hardly wait to start gardening. I've been out mucking around in the yard for two weeks, and yet another clue – this one from the Bohemian waxwings that descended on my apple tree Monday – was a reminder that spring is not quite here. The birds were desperate for food and moisture and wallowed in every spare pool of water they could find. So many birds lit down in the front road puddles they stopped traffic.
This weekend's snow might help the birds, but because the ground is still frozen most of the moisture will run off without giving your perennials and trees a drink. I've already watered the tulips because they are next to the house where the ground appears thawed, but I'll spare the tap and wait for the ground to melt before watering the bigger trees out in the yard.
If the weather turns warm again next week, inspiring you to get out in the garden, there are things to do now that will help soothe your itching green thumb. It's not too early to do some general spring clean up around the yard.
Rake lawn
“You may absolutely rake your lawn if it appears dry enough, but you might consider raking the leaves onto your perennials to protect them in case we get a cold snap. You might also want to cover your tulips,” said Tam Andersen of Prairie Gardens and Greenhouses.
Andersen explained that cold spring temperatures are more apt to kill perennials and non-native shrubs more quickly than cold winters. The sap begins to run in the plants and then freezes. Once the sap freezes it expands and blows up the wood inside the shrub. The buds on the shrub may swell and then shrivel but the plant will die.
“Native shrubs, such as willows, won't break dormancy until they have two signals: warm soil temperature and more hours of daylight. Unfortunately non-native species such as roses, cherries and plums respond to soil temperature only and they could start to break their dormancy,” she said.
Leaf mulch
“A mulch around the roots of all perennials moderates the soil temperature,” Andersen explained.
Strawberry plants are hardy but they set their fruit-bearing blossoms in the fall. Andersen advises leaving mulch over the plants until about the beginning of May.
“The flower buds are in the crown. If it goes down to minus 16, which it can do in April, the crowns will freeze and turn black and you won't get any fruit. I keep checking around the plants and when I see white shoots starting to grow, that's when I usually uncover them,” she said.
Plant seeds
Imagine the joy of having fresh lettuce or spinach in June. These vegetables prefer cool temperatures to germinate and in previous years I've tried early-spring seeding with mixed success. From my perspective it's an interesting, inexpensive gardening experiment and you get na-na-na points when the vegetables are ready early.
If the garden soil is too frozen to work, Andersen suggested planting spinach in a planter close to the house.
“Then if it gets too cold you can put the pot in the garage. But by the time everyone else plants their garden you could be eating spinach. Then you can still plant flowers in the pot for summer blooms,” she said
It's a good time to plant sweet peas too, if your ground isn't still frozen. Plant the seeds in a trench about three inches deep and cover with soil. Once the sweet peas sprout, cover them with another light layer of soil. When the little shoots come through that layer too, cover them again. By late April, or early May, you'll have nice strong sweet peas ready to climb a trellis.
“Sweet peas are good things to plant successively so every week you plant more seeds and you extend the blooming season,” Andersen said.
Andersen said she has tried planting potatoes in the house in March to give them a jump-start on the season. The best varieties to try are Norland, Ptarmigan and Eramosa potatoes.
“Use seed potatoes, not table potatoes as they may be diseased. Plant them in a pot in a nice sunny window and then in early May transplant them to the garden. You'll gain a month on the season and have baby potatoes in early July,” she said.
“Unlike the lettuce, potatoes don't do well if you plant them too early outside. The seed potatoes wait until the soil is warm enough and usually they rot,” she said.
Plant willows
Some years ago my brother-in-law cut a number of 12-inch long sticks from his willow tree and then froze them until the ground was thawed enough for us to plant along the border between our two lake properties.
As spring gardening experiments go, this one seemed ridiculous. Each family member took a few bare-looking sticks and with great, disbelieving merriment pounded them into the ground. The tops of the sticks were flayed from hammering and none of us believed in the process, but that May the sticks sprouted leaves.
A quarter century later we have different, non-related neighbours and a beautiful stand of willows that acts as a lacy-leafed hedge between our yards.
“It's called hardwood planting and you can do it with poplars too. Ideally the sticks will be the diameter of your thumb. If you really want success, try dipping them in rooting hormone first,” said Andersen.
