Spring is finally stuttering its way into existence. Yesterday was the warmest day so far of 2013. The temperature soared to 55F (12.7C). I opened a window for a short time so the cats could sniff some fresh air. By the time the day began to cool, so much snow had melted I could see bare ground in parts of the garden.
Bookman had to work yesterday so he missed the gorgeous day. And of course, since he did not work today, it is not such a nice day. Sunny, yes, but a cold wind is gusting, whipping the naked tree branches around. The plan was to give Bossy, our front garden green apple tree, a pruning. But the wind is too much for tree pruning today. We will try again later in the week when the temperature will be warmer again and the winds are forecast to be light.
Instead of pruning Bossy we planned the veggie garden. I scattered seed packets all over the floor, drew the garden beds on a piece of paper and with the help of Bookman, Wikipedia companion plant list, Golden Harvest Organics, and Carrots Love Tomatoes, we figured out what to plant where. It was like working a big jigsaw puzzle — tomatoes, basil, marigolds, and bell peppers all get planted together but keep the kohlrabi away from the tomatoes but plant it with beets but keep the beets away from the runner beans.
After the puzzle was put together, we sorted through the seed packets and made little stacks of what seeds need to be planted as soon as the ground thaws, what needs to be started later this week in our mini greenhouse, and what gets planted in early and mid-May. Then we clipped each group together with notes and put them by the garden door so we don’t forget about them.
The annual plant sale Bookman and I go to every May has their 2013 catalogue available as of yesterday so I downloaded it and went through it, marking everything that struck my fancy. Next weekend I will start to winnow down the list, but on the first pass through it is fun to pretend as if I had all the time and money and my neighbor’s houses had disappeared to be replaced by my garden. If only.
And because one needs inspiration from time to time, I enjoyed two gardening books from the library as well. Front Yard Gardens by Liz Primeau is supposedly a how-to book but really isn’t. What it is is page after page of color photos of before and after front yard gardens big and small, overflowing and minimalist, natural and formal. Books like this are great for inspiration — I’ll take that wall, that path, that color combination, that trick to make a small space look bigger, and see how I might work it into my own garden.
The other book was Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota by Lynn Steiner. Another book full of inspiration but also information. For instance, I learned that Minnesota has three main biomes, prairie, deciduous forest, and coniferous forest. Minneapolis is part of the deciduous forest biome, or at least it used to be. There isn’t much in the way of forest in the Twin Cities anymore. Minnesota used to have more than 18 million acres of tall grass prairie. Sadly, these days all but 150,000 acres of it have been plowed under and farmed and built on. Only 48,000 of those remaining acres are actually protected. That breaks my heart and makes my own little efforts at building a prairie garden that much more urgent. I can’t replicate the vast diversity of a real prairie in my urban garden but I can create some of it and provide food and protection for birds, bees and butterflies and that’s got to be worth something.
I opened my window for (I think) the second time yesterday, and Sophie happily sniffed the air for quite a while. No open windows today, though. It was wet and chilly. I like cold weather, but even I am ready for spring.
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Teresa, early spring is a hard time of year, isn’t it? Cold one day, warm the next, rain one day and snow the next. Soon we will both be complaining about how hot it is!
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We’re getting really warm weather this week, forecast will go up to 14C on Tues. But from our experience, all these temp. are misleading; after all, this is Alberta. So we’ve learned never to plant anything before Victoria Day (May 20), for overnight frost or even snow is still highly probable. Glad you’re enjoying spring already.
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Arti, 14? Nice! We will be able to plant cold hardy things like peas and lettuce in about two weeks but anything that doesn’t like cold, we don’t dare plant until after May 10th and even then it is a risk. May 15th is our average last frost date but it isn’t guaranteed since I’ve been plant shopping in the snow on that day before. but spring is the ever hopeful season, isn’t it?
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Why are you getting a heat wave while we are still ‘basking’ in sub-arctic temperatures 😊? We might get 5C this week if we are lucky. I am suffering temperature envy.
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Glad spring is stuttering to life with you Stefanie. As Alex says it is still quite chilly here though it seems a bit less snowy. Some dark rumours this might last through to May. If I’m honest though, I quite like the slightly cold weather = much more than any heatwave but I can understand that lots of people in UK are pining for some proper spring weather!
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Ian, cold through May? I do hope that turns out to be a rumor and you warm up soon. I don’t mind cool weather either, definitely better than a heatwave, those are simply miserable. I would like to go outside without thinking about putting on a coat though. At least I can feel mostly confident about putting away the snow boots.
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Alex, no one has ever claimed temperature envy for my weather before! I hope you warm up soon. Though if it is any consolation we are back to the 2-4C range for a couple of days.
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I just picked up a copy of Country Garden which my Mom still gets. There was an article about raised beds, and I would love to try that this year. The article does not explain how to build it, or what lumber to use (can you believe that? Why not follow through, I ask??). Anyway, I expect that I must use untreated wood, for health concerns, and probably cedar or something else that is not going to invite termites. The article suggest beds that are 4 feet wide. From the pictures it appears they used 2x4s, making the beds 4 inches deep for the mostly herb garden. But it said one could also use 2x8s allowing for deeper rooted veg. Our soil is so sandy that it contains tiny seashells – probably from the time the island was underwater and ichthyosaurs swam over what is now my backyard. So a raised bed filled with mushroom compost (love that stuff) might be easier than digging up and amending the soil. Have you ever tried raised beds? P.S. I heard Minneapolis was going down to the mid-30s today and immediately thought of you and your garden. But this too shall pass.
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Grad, no explanation about how to build raised beds with the article? That’s plain silly. Bad magazine, bad! Seashells in your soil? I though my soil was sandy! You have me beat! We will be building two small raised beds in the next couple of weeks to plant blueberry bushes in. They need acidic soil so it’s easier to give them their own beds. You do need to use untreated wood. We’ll be using 2x4s or 2X6s, not sure which yet. Blueberries have shallow roots I’ve been told. I’ve not built raised beds before but I have done container gardening in large pots and that was great, no weeds! I look at the blueberry beds as building our own containers. Yes, we are back into the 30s with promises of 50s by Wednesday.
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Facts can be very shocking, at least the facts about protected prairie you mention here did that to me. I wonder, would it disappear alltogether will we remember how it was, would it vanish from my and our collective memory, what would the impact be on our imagination. Better not think too deeply about that here and now, turn to To Make a Prairie (Emily Dickinson) and applaud your urban prairie.
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Cath, the small amount of protected prairie is shocking even more so when put next to the number of how much prairie there used to be. I think if it were to vanish completely, we would all be worse for it not to mention the diversity of plants and animals that would also disappear. I love that Dickinson poem, a flower and one bee 🙂
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You’re having it warmer than we are! The weather here is still bitterly cold and I haven’t set foot in the garden yet as the ground is still frozen solid! Still, it’s lovely to start to dream about what might be… if spring ever arrives!
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litlove, it didn’t last long! It was about 4C yesterday with a very cold wind. I’ve only looked at the garden through the window so far, there is still a bit of snow left in it. We are supposed to get warm again by Thursday though so I don’t think the remaining snow will be with us much longer. At least I hope it won’t! I hope your weather warms up soon!
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It would be so cool if you created a prairie garden–I look forward to seeing the results of all your work! It was a little warmer here, too, over the weekend but then snowed (just a little) Monday morning. It’s still pretty brisk (well, to me colder than brisk, but I’ll try and be optimistic) early in the day, but I think slowly it is going to keep improving. Maybe by week’s end your snow will be gone? Ours has more or less been gone for a while now–just shady sections of the yards. Now a little green grass and some flowers would be nice! It IS nice, though, that in the mornings I can hear the birds chirping–always a good sign.
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Danielle, I am planning to make most of my front yard a prairie garden. We’ll see if I can manage it! It’s supposed to be about 50 here today and just a little warmer tomorrow then chilly again. The ups and downs of spring. I suspect that by the end of the weekend most of the snow will be gone. Yay! Flowers will come soon. I’ve noticed the birds singing in the morning too. I love being serenaded walking to the bus stop and waiting for the bus 🙂
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Yesterday and today it’s been warm enough that I opened my windows too, and moved a few plants outside temporarily to enjoy the sun. I always do like that puzzle of figuring out which plants should go where, and sort them by the same categories: start indoors early, plant when soil thaws, start just before the frost date, plant outside later. But I do all my planning midwinter when nothing else can be done!
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Jeane, isn’t amazing what a little fresh air and sunshine can do to lift the spirits? I start planning what I want to plant in the middle of winter and then in early spring when I have the seeds, I lay them all out on the floor and move them around, then write the plan down on paper so I don’t forget!
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