Yesterday I got ahead of myself and started rhapsodizing about taking walks around the garden. It made me laugh to read it over and then glance outside at the Tranquil Garden, still mostly covered in snow. It’s okay to look ahead with new resolutions for the gardening season but there’s still some time before we’ll have the joy and luxury of daily walkabouts in the garden.
So, what can be done as soon as the snow melts or even before? Well, if I were a stickler I would say, “Get out your garden tools, wipe off the dirt you didn’t wash off last fall and give them a coat of oil!”. Of course, I know you’ve all done that, so I don’t have to mention it. Okay, now that we’ve taken care of the grunt work, let’s have some fun.
I already talked about buying rhizomes to sprout and if you haven’t done that by now, well, it’s not too late but almost. You can definitely start reading plant catalogues. I have ordered plants by mail with varying degrees of success. The trouble with doing that is the plants generally need to be bunged into the ground as soon as they arrive and of course, something always gets in the way. However, the nice thing about catalogues (and now they’re all on-line probably) is that you can get plants you might not get at your local nursery. Varieties abound and they’re hard to resist. I have ordered tulip bulbs that way and they work very well, but I have ordered clematises that didn’t make it, very disappointing. Anyway, it’s fun to look through catalogues and you might get inspired to try to spot the same plants in your local nursery.
Another fun thing you can do in anticipation is make a garden plan. I hear they’re very good things to have. I never made one, but that’s just me. Most people agree that planning out how you want your garden to look in the years to come is a great idea. It makes sense: you can carefully dig beds in logical spots, plant the right size plants for the right soil, and even plan for future light conditions that will exist when your saplings have grown into large trees. For myself, planning that far ahead is difficult. My garden plan is there but it’s not written in stone (or on paper). It’s just a few ideas I have that keep coming back. One is to get rid of all the grass eventually and have only garden beds with paths snaking through. I’m accomplishing that, one flower bed at a time. I can’t imagine doing it all at once, because after all, it’s only me back there! Another idea that won’t completely go away is putting in a few vegetables some day. That’s the kind of thing I will probably do at a moment’s notice. I might just throw in some swiss chard or carrots among the flowers. Maybe it’ll happen this year! I find I get more accomplished when I let my impulses flow and do things spontaneously. I may regret it later and have to move a bunch of plants, but that’s how it goes.
While you’re looking at plant catalogues and probably the Lee Valley Catalogue, too, you can listen to this song by Alex Cuba. We have recently discovered this wonderful artist and his sultry voice.
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