• Home
  • ABOUT
  • VIDEOS
  • Contact
  • SHOP

The Impatient Gardener

Garden

The first moments in the spring garden

April 11, 2018

I didn’t intend to start cleaning up the garden over the weekend. The thermometer never got over 40 and there is snow cover on about 40 percent of the garden. But on Sunday, after  walk on the beach with the dogs (in which we saw two bald eagles fly just overhead, quite a rare sight here), the sun was warm and I thought it might be a good time to check on the status of the climbing rose I buried in fall.

new growth on rose

The buried rose canes had nice buds and even a few shoots like this.

snowy spring garden

This bed didn’t get cleaned out because it was half covered in snow. And the greens are still frozen in the urn.

Three hours later I had unearthed the rose—laid on its side and buried to try to keep the canes from freezing out as they have in the past—and found fat buds (yay!), raked out a bed off the deck, cleaned up the chive hedge in the circle garden and even managed to get a little color on my face (pale Wisconsin skin hasn’t seen the sun in a looooong time). By the time the wind picked up off the lake to provide an uncomfortable chill I had accomplished a small amount of the many tasks that lie ahead for spring. But I may as well have finished the whole list for the amount of satisfaction I got from it.

Virgina bluebells pushing up in little purple nubs.

magnolia buds

The buds on the magnolia tree are still very small.

That’s how it goes at this time of year thought. Mundane gardening tasks are joyful (well, most of them, anyway). Slowly you relearn how to get lost in the garden for hours at a time. You find fat buds on a climbing rose that you buried and you realize that the garden will come through another winter again. 

Almost there.

roses spring spring cleanup virginia blue bells
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
5 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

View all posts by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

Related Posts

  • Hellebore Spanish FlareSavoring signs of spring
  • Short-flowering bulbs got you down?
  • Do I dare to dream of spring?
  • Blue Angel costaA great year for hostas (and slugs)
previous post: Treat your pruners right with a spring spruce-up
next post: Friday Finds: Spring Dreaming Edition

Comments

  1. Susan in Chicago says: April 11, 2018 at 6:44 am

    After 2″ of snow on Monday, today has the promise of spring. Maybe 60 degrees, sunshine, hooray! Loved the Virginia bluebells shoots photo – ours look about the same. My journal from 2016 said the bluebells were starting to flower, but that was the year with 80’s in March! Hopefully the strong SW winds this week will bring some spring your way!

    Reply
  2. timmyd says: April 11, 2018 at 8:12 am

    The only 2 things out in my neck of the woods (coastal MA) are the start of my peonies and the woodchuck. Yep, he/she’s already been spotted. OMG!

    Reply
  3. Karen says: April 11, 2018 at 11:40 am

    Haven’t done anything to clean out beds–just keep looking for signs of life. There are a few, but with 10″ of snow possible this Friday in our neck of the woods (N NE), I think I will wait a little longer…So hard to be patient, especially when we are at least 3 weeks behind last year. But spring WILL eventually arrive…

    Reply
  4. Lisa at Greenbow says: April 11, 2018 at 12:26 pm

    We are beginning the big warm up. It looks like 2 or 3 more nights of 30’s then I hope it will be smooth sailing from here into spring. My garden is ahead of yours. I have cleaned up as much as I can. I am ready to plant but it will be awhile yet. A short while.
    Your rose looks perfectly happy. Good luck with clean up.

    Reply
  5. Linda from Each Little World says: April 12, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    Mostly picking up twiggy debris and locust pods. But it makes such a huge mental difference. Pond is now fully open and I cut back a bunch of Epimedium foliage.

    Reply

Leave Your Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About

The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

Here's some more about me.

CONNECT

Awards

Garden Comm award

MY FAVORITE GEAR

https://www.amazon.com/shop/impatientgardener

Instagram

impatientgardener

E R I N 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I had a rather unpleasant realization last night w I had a rather unpleasant realization last night when I remembered that I’d not yet ordered tomato seeds. And I’m not going to rectify that until I dig into my seed stash, because I don’t go through tomato seeds quickly so there are definitely some lurking down there. 

I never used to grow tomatoes from seed because there are great varieties to be had in garden centers (including many heirloom varieties). But it’s almost non-negotiable for me now that I’m a convert to dwarf tomatoes. If you’re not familiar with the #dwarftomatoproject championed by @nctomatoman and others, these are heirloom varieties that are crossed with dwarf varieties to create plant that produces all the flavor and interest of an heirloom in a short (usually less than 4 feet) plant. 

They are particularly great in my tall raised beds. Of course I leave room to try new non-dwarf varieties every year (I loved Sun Dipper from @panamseed last year and I’ll grow it again).

Last year was a good tomato year and the photo shows some of the varieties I harvested in one day. I hope this summer will be equally good for the tomato harvest. 

One of my favorite questions to ask gardeners is: What is your favorite tomato variety to grow? So have at it in the comments because inquiring minds want to know!
And this is why I leave my winter containers assem And this is why I leave my winter containers assembled until at least March. A dusting of snow gives them a whole new look (even if it’s shades of gray). Also, I think I love my Limelight hydrangea even more in winter. Fabulous winter interest!
I’m going to look for opportunities to add more I’m going to look for opportunities to add more ferns to my garden this year. They are such interesting plants and often real problem solvers, bringing texture and color to places that many plants aren’t interested in. Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern) ‘Crested Surf’ grows well for me in part shade (even pushing a bit into part sun) and looks great next to Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’.
Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled o Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled on) foliage, and texture galore. I can’t wait to have moments like this again. The star, by the way is Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’ which looks so good with the bold foliage of Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’ next to it. 

With the new path, this area will be getting a small revamp. It’s the next spot I’ll be focusing my planning on.
Load More Follow on Instagram

SEARCH

Popular posts

  • Three ways to grow annual poppies
  • Treat your pruners right with a spring spruce-up
  • Oh how I love a great garden path
  • 2 ways to plant dahlias

Find us on Facebook

Archives

  • ABOUT
  • TALK TO ME
  • TERMS & DISCLAIMERS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Home

Copyright © 2023 · Prima Donna theme by Georgia Lou Studios

Copyright 2009-2021 ©The Impatient Gardener