Random musings on spring in the garden (and elsewhere)

Posted on May 23, 2021 by John Kevin Hickey

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt”.

Margaret Atwood

Spring has sprung!

Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay

While the phrase “spring has sprung” is just a play on words, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a psychological component behind the saying. It is my observation that it takes spring awhile to get going. The equinox rolls around, but any obvious signs of springs arrival seems to take forever to arrive.

But once it finally does get going; BOOM!, seemingly overnight spring has arrived in all its glory.

As an example, check out these pictures I took of MrsVintage’s peony over a span of eleven days:

Peony shoots reaching for the sun on May 9th. The forest green “sticks” are actually the legs to a staking hoop that I use to keep the peony upright when it’s in bloom. Make note of the iris leaves next to the peony.
Peony on May 17th and just nine days later the peony is growing up through the staking hoop. Notice how the peony now dwarfs the iris.
Just 3 days later, and flower buds are beginning to appear. I expect full flowering in very soon.

Mindboggling growth in less than two weeks.

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I’m trying an experiment this year. I love me some home grown tomatoes, but my efforts over the past few years have been quite disappointing. Lots of blossom end-rot and fungal issues. So this year I’ve decided to grow tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. Growing them this way will probably be more labor intensive than growing them in the ground, but if later this summer I can dig my chompers into a home grown tomato, the effort will be well worth it!

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I’ve mentioned several times that spring flowering bulbs are the redheaded stepchild in my garden. They’re ok, but far from my favorite. Let me provide yet another example of why I feel this way.

Hybrid tulips are notorious for disappearing over time. The first spring after planting their flower display is amazing. But over the next several years the blooms get less and less impressive. In many cases, the tulips may just flat out disappear forever!

Case in point: See these orange tulips growing along the front walkway? At one time, not so long ago, there were a dozen of these in this border. This year they are down to three.

Species tulips* on the other hand can, if placed in the right conditions, multiply and naturalize over a large area. I may have to look into planting some of those this autumn.

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To deter rabbits this year, I am adding another weapon to my arsenal: Irish Spring bar soap. Supposedly, rodents detest the smell of Irish Spring. I have no idea if this is true, and I’m not going to carry out an experiment to find out. I’m just going to throw little slices of the bar soap around hard hit areas in hopes it will work in conjunction with the other deterrents.

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One thing I have come to realize is that the Winter blues and/or Seasonal Affective Disorders (SAD) don’t just turn off like a light switch when the spring equinox occurs. It takes time for the blues to loosen their grip. I have observed that my symptoms start to ease sometime in April, and (for me) they seem to lift entirely in mid-May. There comes a day when the sun is bright, the trees and shrubs are cloaked in leaves and the birds are chirping away and I realize that I actually feel pretty good.

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Been on several bicycle rides so far this spring. Not much to report on that, except to note that riding on a trainer or a stationary bike in the colder months does not seem to confer much benefit when it comes time to actually ride outside. Or at least it doesn’t seem to provide much benefit to me. Maybe if I were more consistant in my training, but riding indoors is so boring!

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So there you go, just a few of the observations of spring that has been bouncing around my cranium.

How fares your spring so far?

* ‘Species’ tulips are tulips that have not been crossbred; in other words, they’re the original tulips. ‘Hybrid’ tulips are ones that have been bred to improve some quality of the original tulips. Better color or more disease resistance for example.

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What’s happening in the garden (early May edition)

Posted on May 7, 2021 by John Kevin Hickey

Spring has finally arrived in my slice of suburbia. Officially, it has been spring for a month and a half, but it sure hasn’t felt like spring in all that time. As soon as the spring equinox arrived, the jet stream was kind enough to drop cloudy and dreary skies over my domicile for several weeks.

But all of that is behind us! Well, most of that is behind us. I’ve made no bones that spring takes the bronze medal as far as seasons go (winter fails to qualify). Spring weather in Colorado is manic; one day it’s 86 degrees with full sun, the next day the highs only hit the upper 30’s with rain/snow mix.

Nevertheless, it has become obvious that spring is now gaining momentum. I always find it amazing at how fast the yard and garden transforms in just a few weeks. Check out the two photos below to see what I mean.

This photo of the long border in the backyard was taken on March 28th.

Now see the dramatic transformation that has take place over the following five weeks.

Photo of the same border taken on May 2nd. Ignore the finger in the upper left corner.

Nothing says spring more than blooming daffodils and tulips. What I am about to say may sound like heresy, but I really don’t much care for spring ephemerals like tulips and daffodils. Don’t get me wrong, I do plant them because they welcome sight after a long and dreary winter. But in my view, their impact in the garden is practically negligible. Most of the spring flowering bulbs are small and sparse. For them to have a true impact, the gardener needs to plant hundreds, if not thousands of them.

Once they finish blooming, the leaves of the plants stick around for about a month or so and then wither away, leaving no trace of the plant’s existence in the garden. Hence why they are called ephemerals.

Yet, in spite of all that, you can be sure that I will be planting more spring flowering bulbs in the fall. Hey, like I said, they are a welcome sight after a long and dreary winter!

So let’s take a gander at a couple of spring flowering bulbs I planted last autumn.

First up, we have ‘Lemon Queen’ narcissus. I planted about 2 dozen of these beauties along a south facing fence in the backyard. Quite nice, if I do say so myself. I’ll plant another 2 dozen this fall, but I’m going to add a few solid yellow daffodils to provide a contrast with the predomintly white ‘Lemon Queen’.

Harbingers of spring (the daffodils, not the dog)

Below is a closeup of ‘Lemon Queen’

Bob Ross might say that this is a happy little flower

Next up is ‘Princess Irene” tulips I planted next to the patio. I’ve never grown ‘Princess Irene’ before, but having seen Monty Don on the BBC show Gardeners World rave about them, I thought I would give them a try. As you can see, the flowers are orange with a touch of green Eventually the green streak changes over to a purplish color.

I put these beauties next to the patio so they would mingle with the blue flowers of the Brunnera and the yellow flowers of the Oregon Grape holly.

‘Princess Irene’ tulips strutting their stuff next to the pale blue flowers of the Brunnera, and in the back the yellow flowers of the Oregon Grape holly (mahonia repens). The grass-like plants to the right of the tulips are Spanish Bluebells, which should begin blooming in a couple of weeks.

Here is a closeup of one of these princesses:

‘Princess Irene’ is indeed stunning, don’t you think?
Here you can see the purple highlights better. Sorry about the fuzziness of the photo.

Speaking of Brunnera (or false forget-me-not), this hardy shade perennial continues to perform wonderfully well at the feet of the big-tooth maple. I learned something interesting about this plant this past winter. If the weather gets too hot and dry, and it doesn’t receive adequate supplemental moisture, it will go dormant for the year. I’ve seen this happen in the past in my own garden, and I was sure I had killed some of them. But they always return year after year.

Brunnera making its annual spring appearance, brightening up the dry-shade area next to the patio.

Let’s take a closer look at those fantastic blue flowers:

The picture is a little blurry, not the flowers!

So that’s some of what’s going on in the Vintage garden this first week of May. Once the tulips, daffodils and brunnera stop flowering, there will be a bit of a lull in the garden. But the irises, peonies and other late spring bloomers should start taking off in a couple of weeks. Hopefully by then the spring weather will become a bit more consistent.

Whatcha got blooming in your neck of the woods right now?

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Book review: The Winter Army

Posted on May 2, 2021 by John Kevin Hickey

I just finished The Winter Army by Maurice Isserman. The Winter Army is a short, but informative, account about the formation and the battles of the 1oth Mountain division during World War 2.

I’ll admit that, in spite of my fascination with the history of WW2, I had never really paid much attention to the feats of the 10th Mountain. That’s because, in spite of their great publicity and actual heroics, the 10th Mountain didn’t really have much impact on the outcome of the war.

However, my interest was piqued when I started working at a local bicycle shop, and found out that the store manager was the son of a man who had served with the 10th during the war. In fact, his father is mentioned prominently several times in this book.

The idea for the formation of “skiing troops” was initially conceived by a group of American civilians who were inspired by Finnish ski soldiers. The Finnish army resisted an invasion by the Red Army by launching hit and run attacks while on cross-country skis. These patriotic Americans, fearing that should Britain fall the United States might be invaded, took their idea of ski-troops to the U.S. Army.

Anybody who has ever served in the United States military already knows what the Army’s answer was: No thanks, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

But thanks to their connections and their determination, this group of patriotic Americans eventually persevered and the 10th Mountain was born.

The book itself is slow going at first, because there is such an emphasis on the ski training that the troops received. Which I guess makes sense, because that was what the type of training the Division focused on. But the details can get a little eye-glazing.

After 3 years of training at various bases around the United States (the most famous being Camp Hale in Colorado), the 10th Mountain finally deployed to Italy in late winter of 1945. And that is when the book really takes off.

If you are a WWII history buff, this book is definitely worth checking into.

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