“Slowly at first, then all at once”.
Mike Campbell: The Sun Also Rises
The above quote from Hemingway’s novel is actually from a character describing how he went bankrupt. But I think it is also a good way to describe Spring’s progression from winter dormancy to full blown springtime.
I find Spring to be the oddest of all the seasons. The days on the calendar move along, but Spring itself arrives in dibs and drabs. A warm, sunny day here followed by several days of cold, wet weather. Vivid blooms on spring bulbs that seem to disappear overnight.
An analogy I like to use is that Spring is like a runner crouched in the chocks, drawing a deep breath right before the starter’s pistol goes off. Tension builds in anticipation of the release from the upcoming event. The proverbial calm before the storm, as it were.
I suspect the tension that build while waiting for Spring to finally arrive is due to the fact, that while there are small pockets of plants in bloom, the garden itself is still predominantly sparse and bare. While some trees and shrubs might be blooming, they are still denuded of leaves. Perennials are mostly just small mounds of new growth. Even though the sun currently occupies the same patch of sky it will inhabit sometime in mid-August, the air is still cool to the skin. So, while the sights and sounds of Spring may sometimes fool our senses into believing that it’s almost summer, most other times it feels like Winter is refusing to let go. It feels like nature is a tightly wound coil spring, that at any second will let loose and finally jump into the growing season…
Hmm, perhaps that is why the season is called Spring? Doubtful, but it seems appropriate. For a month from now all that energy will finally be released and the landscape will be nearly unrecognizable from what it looks like today. We will wake up one day and realize that, yes, Spring has finally arrived in all its glory
Last year I even wrote about how it seems that spring just appears out of nowhere: https://www.mrvintageman.com/spring/.
Ok, let’s see what is new in the garden this week.
My last garden post I bitched about the stupid woodpecker that drilled a hole in my siding and woke Mrs. Vintage and I every morning. This week’s post finds me bitching about a different pest, one that can ravage gardens, destroy crops and annoy your dogs. I am speaking of the “suburban rats”, otherwise known as squirrels.
My specific complaint with these annoying bastards is that they’re destroying whole branches on my trees. These buggers are chewing the bark all the way around large branches, which in turn leads to the death of said branch. If they would only chew part of the bark that would be ok because the branch would survive. But when they chew all the way around the branch all I can do is cut the whole branch off to prevent diseases from entering the wound.
This is a fairly recent development, by the way. I’ve had these trees for a decade or longer, and for years the squirrels left them alone. But for reasons unknown, these past couple of years they have declared war on my trees. I let my doggos out into the yard to scare them away, but as soon as the doggos come back in the rat-bastards return.
What’s even worse, I have discovered that I have a neighbor who deliberately feeds these furry scourges. This has led a noticeable uptick in their population. What kind of a sick, twisted psycho lives in my midst?
That’s not the only vexing problem in the garden. Below are a couple of pictures of my Serviceberry (amelanchier x grandiflora Autumn Brilliance) that anchors one end of a section of the garden that I have dubbed “the Bermuda Triangle”, so named because many of the plants that I have placed there over the years have disappeared to never be seen again. Serviceberry is a beautiful tree with multiple seasons of interest. It blooms these pretty white blooms in spring, and the leaves turn an intense orange and red in autumn.
Unfortunately, whatever is causing problems in the Bermuda Triangle might be killing this tree. The roots have girdled the trunk of the tree, just below the soil, causing the tree to literally choke itself to death. A common cause of girdling is when the gardener doesn’t tease out the roots of a plant sufficiently when putting it into the ground. This causes the roots basically continue to grow in the same direction they did when they were constrained by the container, which ultimatly leads to girdling.
I am usually very conscientious about spreading the rootball when I plant, so I fear there may be something in the soil that is not favorable to plant life in the Bermuda Triangle. Perhaps the tree didn’t like something in the soil and so didn’t push its roots beyond the original hole I dug when I planted it.
I’ll go into more detail on the Bermuda Triangle in another post. I just wanted to show the Serviceberry in bloom.
In more positive news, the Brunnera (below) is still blooming strong. The Basket-of-gold is blooming right along side of it. Many of the prettiest plant combinations in my garden have been happy accidents. This combination was deliberate, and I am very pleased with the result. The plant in the back, which also has yellow blooms, is a Creeping Oregon Grape (mahonia repens). This is an evergreen prostrate shrub that is native to the western United States. What I am trying to achieve in this section is the feeling of a woodland under-story. I think I have mostly succeeded. What do you think?
False forget-me-not, Basket-of-gold, and Creeping Oregon Grape provide a woodland feel to under-story of the Bigtooth Maple.
On a final note, not all the gardening action is happening outside. Look below at the newly created succulent garden I put together. It was actually Mrs. Vintage’s idea. We had an old southwestern style pot lying around, and she suggested that a cactus garden might look good in it. She didn’t need to tell me twice. I rummaged around a local nursery and a Lowes nearby for the plants and materials needed. I have no idea of the names of these succentents. I just picked out several of different shapes.
When making a cactus garden, it’s important to use quick draining soil. So I bought some cactus potting soil, used cooking tongs to put the cacti in place and topped it all off with a pebble mulch. If you look closely, you can see a cow skull and a rattlesnake nestled among the plants.
So that’s what has been happening in my yard and garden. How about your yarden? Do you have any pictures or stories you would like share? If so, please send your pictures and details to MrVintageMan2@gmail.com.
