Down To Earth

Don't be fooled by fickle 'Farch' forecasts

By Kristin Green
Posted 2/28/18

Everyone I talk to is antsy to dig in the garden as if it’s time. It’s not. Daffodils are up but not budded. It’s too soggy to plant. Too early to divide. Too soon for most of us …

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Down To Earth

Don't be fooled by fickle 'Farch' forecasts

Posted

Everyone I talk to is antsy to dig in the garden as if it’s time. It’s not. Daffodils are up but not budded. It’s too soggy to plant. Too early to divide. Too soon for most of us (without a greenhouse) to start seeds indoors (unless we’re talking sweet peas and cardoon). We know this but (almost) every year we’re tempted by spring-like thaws; the sweet and sour smell of earth and skunk, birds singing, squirrels cavorting, and witch hazels, hellebores, and fancy pink and black pussy willows blooming. But February/March weather can’t be trusted. Might be in the 60s one day (yesterday) and snowing the next (yup). That’s how this season rolls. But we shouldn’t let Farch stop us from gardening.

The days are longer and the sun is warmer and we’re not the only ones to notice. Your houseplants are thinking about growing again, if not in active spurt already, and they’re hungry. Potting soil has very little nutritional value, particularly if you haven’t repotted in a while. (I haven’t.) You could do that now. (I might.) And you should throw some fertilizer into the watering can before your next rounds. I would use Neptune’s Harvest organic fertilizer if I didn’t mind my house smelling like the beach on a red tide day. I do mind. Instead, from now on every few weeks, my indoor plants will (promises, promises) get a drink spiked with a small scoop of JR Peters Houseplant Special (15-30-15), which resembles Scott’s Miracle Gro Bloom Booster in everything but that company’s affiliation with the evil Monsanto corporation.

If you haven’t completed your winter pruning chores (I haven’t), get to it. After years of experimenting and re-reading instructions I think I finally figured out how to prune my pear tree to encourage plenty of spring flowers followed by an abundance of pears. Last year, I cut back all of the water shoots fatter than a pencil and left the little ones to fatten and bloom. Never mind that the resulting pears are too woody and flavorless to eat. Even the squirrels turn up their noses. Maybe I should go back to my old heavy-handed, no-suckers-allowed way of pruning. Or maybe I should cut the whole tree down and plant something I, and the squirrels, might prefer. Not sure yet what that would be.

My serviceberry (Amelanchier candensis) is already on my hit list. It’s a sweet native — a favorite — and one of the first trees I planted here. But I stuck the poor thing in scant soil in an overly sunny and hot spot along my driveway, and although it grew, it has never been robust. Besides myself, I blame drought stress and annual Cedar Apple Rust infections born on spring winds from my infected backyard junipers. Last summer the fruit failed to mature and attract flocks of birds in June, and most of its leaves dropped well before fall. Broke my heart. If I don’t take it down now, before it puts scant energy into blooming and leafing out, I’ll lose all resolve and be forced to watch it suffer one more year.

Planning-wise I am as behind schedule as I always am and could use a few more indoor days to catch up with my reading, research, imagining, and planning. I want to make pro/con lists of possible pear-alternative backyard tree choices, and a new plan for my driveway bed to make up for the loss of the amelanchier. I should decide now what perennials and shrubs to evict to make room for all the seed annuals I ordered while hungry for summer. I also need to make a propagation plan for said seeds and room for them in the plantry. Clearly, I’ve got some serious gardening to do. So, come on, Farch, lay it on me. One more snow day should do the trick.

Kristin Green is a Bristol-based gardener and author of "Plantiful: Start Small, Grow Big with 150 Plants that Spread, Self-Sow, and Overwinter". Follow her blog at trenchmanicure.com.

Kristin Green

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