One of the nice things about late winter/extremely early spring snowstorms here in the Denver area is, that while they tend to be very wet and heavy, the trees and shrubs haven’t leafed out yet thus there usually isn’t much damage. If a storm like the one that slammed my area last Thursday and Friday hits a month from now, there could be a lot of damaged or destroyed trees.
Because the snow is so moisture laden, the yard and borders get a nice deep soaking. Large swaths of my lawn turned green virtually overnight.
Finally, my favorite thing about these snowstorms is how fast they melt away. Instead of glaciers lingering for weeks or months, snow melts and the garden reappears in just a few days.
Below are some pictures of the storm and then some taken a few days later.
I took the following pictures on March 20th.
I saw this little fellow crawling across the deck while shoveling the deck steps on March 21st.
Where’s he going?
The pictures below were taken on March 24th. Almost a foot of snow is practically gone!
How fares your garden in these very early days of spring?
Oh, and feck off Old-man Winter, for today is the first full day of spring!
Spring must be here, because I’ve got my flip-flops on!
My wife and daughters will tell you that they have likely heard the following story at least two dozen times, maybe more, because I am prone to tell it every year when spring rolls around. But it gives you an idea of how far back my antipathy to winter goes.
On a sunny (but chilly) day many moons ago, when I had about 7 or 8 birthdays under my belt, my parents informed me that it was the first day of spring. I remember feeling ecstatic. Throughout the day I kept running outside to the yard so as to check on how spring was progressing. I kept waiting all day for the weather to warm up, and for the flowers and birds to make their appearance.
It would be an understatement to say that I was highly disappointed with the lack of obvious progress. I recall finding a couple of tiny dandelion blooms scattered in the yard, but I was expecting a lot more. My crestfallen younger self was left to forlornly wonder: WHERE IS SPRING?
My younger self was not aware that spring, like a Southern belle, makes her appearance when she is good and ready and not a minute before.
New growth in the garden in front of the deck.
Truth be told, my excitement on the arrival of the first day of spring has not changed all that much over the ensuing decades. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am now dimly aware that it actually takes time for spring to get fully up to speed. But much like my younger and more naïve self, every year I spend the early spring days anxiously looking for signs of life in my gardens, wondering what plants might have perished from winter’s harsh wrath.
I gnash my teeth when an April snowstorm flattens the daffodils and tulips that were finally started to bloom. I long to put away my jackets and gloves for the season, but the weather just won’t cooperate. And still, after all these years, I am left to wonder: WHERE IS SPRING?
Iris leaves behind the patio.Brunnera pushing through last year’s leaves.Aster (lower left) and “Coronation Gold’ yarrow (upper right) leaves soaking up some warm late winter rays. Tulip bulbs seemed to have popped up out of nowhere overnight. Notice the orange marker flag in the upper middle of the picture. The local cable company isn’t done stomping through the gardens yet.
It’s amazing how dramatic the weather changed when the calendar rolled over to the month of March. February’s weeks of below average temperatures gave way to several of weeks above average temperatures and rainfall instead of snowstorms.
Thanks to the warm and (mostly) dry weather I almost completed the annual garden cleanup before spring even arrived. The snow has disappeared everywhere in my yarden, which enabled me to accomplish so much so quickly.
The garden gets a buzz cut (taken on March 18th).
It’s a good thing I have gotten as far as I have, because the weather took another major swing yesterday, with snow and low temperatures making a savage return. It will probably be some time before I can do much in the garden.
Old-man Winter giving notice that he’s not done with me just yet (taken on March 20).
First full day of spring and this is what greeted this morning. In many areas of the country, gardeners woke up to the sights of blooming flowers and listened to the music of songbirds. I, on the other hand, woke up to the sound of snow shovels scraping driveways and sidewalks.
Sigh. And still, after all these years, I am forlornly left to wonder: WHERE IS SPRING?
Karel Capek (1890-1938), the author of this little book, was an Czech author, playwright, critic and political philosopher who opposed the rise of both fascism and communism in Europe. He wrote several science fiction novels, his most notable being “R.U.R”, where he introduced to the world the word “robot”. (Here’s his Wikipedia entry if you’re interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Čapek).
So you might think a treatise on gardening by this deep thinking philosopher would be a profound dive into the art of horticulture. You would be mistaken. The Gardener’s Year is a humorous and self-deprecating look at the foibles and manias of the gardener. Dare I say it is even a cute? Sure, why not. This is indeed a cute and fun book.
Mr. Capek delves into such subjects as the gardener’s eternal battle with the water hose, why it is unfair that the extra day in leap-years are in February as opposed to May, and how gardeners are able to recognize one another in public even if they should be strangers.
The most humorous chapter (in my opinion) is when a gardener goes on holiday. He or she asks a neighbor to look after the garden and leaves copious notes on what needs to be done. While away on vacation the gardener sends daily notes on new requirements and anxiously requests updates on the status of the garden. Eventually the gardener returns home early to take care of the garden himself. I could so relate!
Most of the book could have easily been written today, but there are chapters that are charmingly anachronistic. At one point Mr. Capek suggests scooping up horse droppings from the street to help amend the soil. While we modern gardeners no longer need to scrounge the roads for ruminate or equine crap, we are still locked into the same eternal battle to somehow improve our always less than perfect soil. Mr. Capek himself states in this book, “the gardener doesn’t cultivate flowers, he cultivates dirt”.
The chapters are broken into months, i.e. “The Gardeners June” that deal specifically with the gardeners trials for that particular month. There are additional chapters that deal with subjects such as rain, cacti and the gardening life. My e-book version was only 100 pages long, so it is a very quick read. If you enjoy gardening, or even if you don’t, you will enjoy this fun and breezy book about the gardener and his neurosis.
