Spring: great garden expetations and new starts

Pansies harbingers of Spring

This year was a hard winter in the north. The snow covered the ground forever, never melting completely between storms. I spent most of the season hiding in my house in North Dakota "pinning" beautiful pictures of gardens on Pinterest.

view out of front door early May

 In the past years, I would feed my gardening obsession by dragging out my old garden magazines and re-reading the articles or pouring over the photos see to if I could identify the plants with the help of my trusty but worn Sunset plant book. Soon I was dreaming of acquiring those miraculous plants at the garden centers that would need little care and thrive in my tough growing conditions. In my mind "the perfect garden" is always, always attainable in the dormant months. My friends and family have assumed that I hate winter as a gardener but sometimes I tease them that "it's the best season because there is no watering, weeding, planting, digging, tilling or trimming," you know "the work".  So, as soon the snow is gone, why am I out raking the leaves out of the beds, so the sun can warm the frozen ground? Let's face it "real gardeners" are crazy and really love "the work." No matter how much we complain  (and we love complaining), we love it.  Even our aching backs are a reminder that we got something done. We know all the hard work will pay off beautifully, like this daylily yarrow combination from my yard in California.


daylilies and common yarrow

arbor in back yard- California

These are photos of my yard in Northern California end of May 2 years ago. Big difference from North Dakota this May, but still it's northern California. No, is this not Napa Valley or any where near, where you can grow anything easily in warm nights.

 

 

 

Front yard in California

 

Lilacs in front-California

 My other home is in a very rural, remote, dry and cold part of California. Its a few miles from the Nevada boarder and less than an hour from the Oregon boarder, that's right, in the comer where  there is nothing on the map. It sits at an elevation of 4652 feet, clay soil, and little rain fall. USDA says it's zone 5 but Sunset Magazine says it's zone 1, they do have different systems. North Dakota have some thing in common with this part of the California but North Dakota is colder by far. This will be my second year trying to get something beautiful growing here in North Dakota.

 

 

front flower bed after thaw early May- North Dakota



same flower bed May 27th filling in fast- North Dakota

This spring in North Dakota I have been planting tender petunias a few week after I planted my pansies. That was unheard of in my Callie (California) garden. In my Callie garden pansies went in around early April, but you waited and waited, sometimes till mid June before putting in petunias, due to erratic frosts. An elderly lady friend told me not plant petunias or tomatoes till the Locusts trees bloomed because of the frosts and I must say she was right. The ground in North Dakota was frozen solid in the first week of May and in my new garden, when things warmed up the following weeks with low's in the 40's, I planned the petunias. I've planted some other things that I hope to talk about on the next blogs.

 

Thanks for reading,
 Lorin