The Weekly Gardener 1

Logo


Bright Green

Mid-Spring Garden

Fritillaria

The garden is always beautiful, but only twice a year does it turn breathtaking: in mid-spring and at the height of summer.

The mid-spring garden is a new beginning, vibrant in pastel watercolors. After the long stretch of winter browns and grays, the clean display of flowering trees and delicate ground covers is a gift for the soul.

There is always fragrance in the air and the peonies, lilacs, Turk's cap lilies, beardtongues and bleeding hearts put up stunning flower shows.

Naturalized plantings of spring bulbs flow like water between large perennials and in the shade of trees.

Giant alliums and spurred columbines sway over the landscape and large plantings of tulips and irises bloom in mass to create large blocks of color.

The mid-spring garden doesn't have the intensity and excess it reaches at the height of summer. It expresses itself in cool hues and delicate details with all the innocence of new life.

divider

Warm Weather

Hyacinths

Spring has been unseasonably warm so far, with temperatures more suited for June than April.

Although I'm always taken by surprise when it happens, the summer like weather that visits at the end of March is a fairly reliable occurrence.

All things green burst to life suddenly, encouraged by several summer downpours, complete with lightning and thunder.

This period provides an excellent opportunity to finish up spring cleaning and get the flower borders ready, but don't get carried away and start planting: it's still three weeks too early for that.

April is a strange month when the weather indulges sudden temper tantrums. Old lady winter likes to throw a surprise frost at the end, something that seems so implausible now, as I look out the window at blue skies and healthy greenery basking in the sunshine.

I took a risk and started planting the perennials, but the tender annuals will have to wait until May.