Here is a garden word you might not know: “marcescence.” And while you are finding out what that means, check out “Pruning 101” on the page- yes, it is that time of year.
We finally turned the corner on spring here in Ohio, but the last hurrah of flurries show up every once in awhile… we can have snow through sometime in May, but our growing season is beginning!
Today I will sow the sweet pea seeds I bought, because it’s St. Pat’s Day. The sweet peas are going in beside a new lattice, and this is the first year in a number that I will be sowing them on time. I love sweet pea blossoms…even though they are ephemeral and fade out half way through the season. Maybe that is just part of their charm and no drawback, something like fraise de bois and violets…simple, sweet, and fleeting.
Oh the weather is not good for general gardening here, though. It is saturated and ponding where I am, and flooding in this and several surrounding counties. We got simply pounded by heavy rains here… on top of the snow melt. The storms blew a lot of tree branch debris into the yard, and I need to go around and give an early spring assessment to some of my plantings. The honeysuckle shrub, Lonicera fragrantissima has me worried. I might need to cut it down again- which is a few years sooner than I would’ve thought it needed.
I was on a short trip to the South and it was all warmth and blooming spring trees there already… I returned home to better weather, but still some diehard patches of snow along roadsides and parking lots. A clear 40 ° difference between here and there.
