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The first days in the spring garden

May 3, 2018

rhubarb emerging

The first real days in the garden are special. The jobs at this time of year are not particularly exciting or interesting, but I usually write about them anyway because being back in the garden is special in and of itself.

Although the weekend here wasn’t all that nice, we’re looking at some more seasonal temperatures for the week, which means things can quickly get out of control and whatever I can do before that happens is a good time investment.

Temporary greenhouse

The temporary greenhouse is finally up and there are a few seedlings in it. I move seedlings from the house to here when it’s safe to give them more light and work on hardening them off, but mostly to get them out of my house.

Among the must-do jobs were finishing the cleanup of the site of the former (and future) vegetable garden. We started this job more than a month ago but couldn’t  get far because the raised beds were frozen solid. Now that they’ve thawed, we had to finish pulling out the old posts, move the plants I had heeled in for winter and move a lilac that will be a bit too close to the new vegetable garden.

It’s worth making a note on the lilac. I believe it’s ‘Miss Kim’ but I’m not positive. I bought it probably 10 years ago as a plug, nursed it in pots for three or more years and planted it when it was about a foot tall. Now it’s over 6 feet tall. I hope it manages the move because I have a special place in my heart for plants I’ve grown from infancy. I won’t allow it to flower this year (oh, OK, maybe one or two flowers; I’m still human) so it can focus its energy into its roots.

rhubarb emerging from the ground

I think rhubarb is so exotic looking as it emerges from the ground.

I’m hoping that the area for the new vegetable garden will be graded and leveled this week. It’s difficult to get a slot in landscapers’ schedules with our late spring. Many of them are operating a month behind.

Cleaning beds and getting on top of the garlic mustard are at the top of the routine garden maintenance list. This year I’m adopting an idea from Margaret Roach to work on the gardens closest to the house first. In the past I’ve done those last, as the proverbial carrot at the end of the garden clean-up stick, but what often ended up happening was that I’d run out of time to do them property before everything started coming up.

Clematis shoots

I was thrilled to see this very happy clematis sending up so many shoots in the front patio bed.

My plan for the spring cleanup is to work through small areas, doing all the jobs that need doing. This includes raking out whole, matted leaves (many beds are mulched with shredded leaves, and this remains undisturbed), cutting back perennials or vines that were left standing, pulling weeds, fertilizing clematis and doing any other pruning that is necessary. As you can probably guess I didn’t get nearly as far as I had hoped to over the weekend, but that is my standard gardening procedure: Make a list a mile long and then finish two things on it. I give myself a break on this. You can only do what you can do.

unearthing roses protected by rose collars

I unearthed the David Austin roses from their rose collars, which was a new method of protection that I tried this year. I have to say, I’m pretty happy with how it worked out: There were nice, big fat buds in the area that was protected.

I’m not going to lie, I was pretty tired by the end of the weekend. I forget how much hard work gardening can be. But the tired that comes after a weekend in the garden, especially in spring, is the best kind of tired there is. And gin and tonic helps.

 

greenhouse rhubarb roses spring spring cleanup
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
7 Comments

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Comments

  1. Lady Locust says: May 3, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    Oh what fun. It does feel good to play in the dirt after a long winter. I too can hardly wait to move more of my plants outside (from my kitchen.)

    Reply
    • Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says: May 3, 2018 at 10:50 pm

      Right? I love raising all those little plants but holy smokes it gets tedious caring for them for so long! I’m looking forward to having a room back in my house.

      Reply
  2. Linda from aeach Little World says: May 3, 2018 at 8:29 pm

    We’re gtting rain so things are popping. Lots of non-garden events this weekend, so not sure what will get done. Feels like we missed spring with early plants appearing with later ones all at once.

    Reply
    • Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says: May 3, 2018 at 10:51 pm

      Lake Michigan’s moderating presence is helping us in that regard. It’s all very slow and steady here, other than the chives, which appear to grow two inches every night. Short springs do feel like we’re being robbed a bit.

      Reply
  3. Elaine says: May 3, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    I so agree! Spent 3 days weeding and have to recover! Yay for spring

    Reply
    • Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says: May 3, 2018 at 10:52 pm

      I need to get back in gardening shape! Funny the muscles you use for gardening that must not get used for much else.

      Reply
  4. Lisa at Greenbow says: May 4, 2018 at 6:21 am

    It is a process hardening off plants and our muscles in spring. It sounds like you have your work cut out for you. I too am busy trying to get the garden ready for summer. Plants are hopping…

    Reply

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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.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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