In the Garden: March 2012 Archives

I was delighted this past Monday, March 26th, to see two egrets standing at the edge of one of the large retention ponds to the west of our home. Mother and I used to vie to see who might see the first egret to return, and there was always a race to see who would see them first as we drove past on our way to exercise. It's a miracle I didn't drive off the road while swiveling my head, looking for egrets!

Following two weeks of incredibly warm weather, we are now in a cooler trend, with rain expected off and on during the coming week. Many of my daffodils need to be dead-headed, but I still have a lovely collection in bloom, along with the redbud tree at the front of the house. The snowbells burst into bloom, and I discovered that they are apparently getting help from the chipmunks to expand the area they cover. The chippies have moved all my windflowers out into the lawn!

The star magnolia, squill and forsythia blooms are gone, but the tulips have opened. I wouldn't be surprised to see the iris open at their usual time, despite all the warm weather we had.

My herb garden has gotten off to a good start. I need to prune the winter savory, and dig up volunteer garlic chives. If I find the time, I'm digging them out of the garden. They have become a plant I no longer love. And, I need to dig up some volunteers in the walkway of the herb garden, just to tidy things up. I'll wait until this weekend, because it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Usually by the middle of March we are seeing daffodil and tulip greens, with blooms expected in early to mid April. This evening I saw Ice Follies daffodils, forsythia, star magnolia, and squill in bloom. The crocus have fainted from the heat!

We've had a week of temps from the upper sixties to the upper seventies. I was talking with Dear Husband today, while standing in the kitchen. I looked out the window and saw a gray squirrel flattened out in the grass in the shade of the house, trying to cool his belly. He looked more like a flying squirrel who had come in for a landing than one of our regular visitors.

I had two golden delicious apples that were on the wrinkled side. I cut them each into 16 pieces and dropped them under the bird feeder during the middle of the week when I filled the feeders. One of the ground squirrels discovered the bounty. He filled his cheeks with seeds and then crammed an apple between his teeth and took off running up the herb garden walkway with his tail straight up in the air. He jumped over the timbers at the end, ran across the lawn and under Dear Husband's truck to the rough area east of the driveway. I watched him do the same routine twice more before I had to go back to work. Half an hour later, the apples had disappeared! *G* I wonder if he was going to have the family over to share the feast or if he was planning on canning apple pie filling....

Tomorrow, when I go out to take pictures of all the blooms, I'll check to see if the May apples are in bloom in the grove.

I love spring, but could be go back to the fifty and sixty degree temps and sneak up on it? Please!

My garden seems to be persevering despite the odd weather we've had the past few weeks. The daffodils showed up in February which is really early for our Zone 5 temperatures. The warm weather was followed by a blast of cold and snow. I thought I might loose the blooms for this year, but everything is still pushing up out of the ground and greening (or in the case of the tulips bronzing) up. Our temps the past two days have been in the 60s, so I'd guess the plants are really confused.

I saw the first of the crocus today. The chipmunks have replanted them in odd places, so I get lovely surprises. I saw one blooming amidst the mounds of oregano and another in the front garden, both some distance from where they have been planted.

When I was filling the bird feeders earlier this week, I noticed that the chives, the oregano, and the feverfew were greening up. They are truly hardy plants and don't let a little snow bother them once they feel the time is right to grow. I noticed the catnip that has transplanted itself around the north end of the house was adding leaves, too.

In the chat covered walkway of the herb garden, I have an invasion of lamb's ears. While I was working on the filing this week, I came across a card that was an advertisement for one of those gardening "books" that you buy as a series of over-sized cards. This particular card was talking about a low maintenance garden, and lamb's ears were one of the plants that had been used to make a striking border garden. Perhaps I need to trim the lamb's ears back, and get them planted in other parts of my gardens!

I love spring! I'm ready to be doing some work outside!