Ulysses Gardens, May 2007
The Trumansburg Festival of Flowers is coming up in a few days, and it looks like good weather for growing between then and now, provided one thing: Water. The ground is still somewhat moist, so if you’ve got perennials or put seeds in before last week’s rains, they ought to be fine. If, however, you put in new plantings over the sunny weekend, a good watering in the morning once or twice this week will be called for. It will be sunny and warm all through the end of this week.
I’ll be taking the opportunity of the pleasant weather, mostly still free of biting insects, to keep on pulling up the inch-high forest that’s sprouted up this spring in all the garden beds. Last year’s mast production of maple seeds has resulted in a huge amount of seedlings, now putting out their first set of secondary leaves. Better to pull them now than after their roots turn woody, I suppose.
I’ve noticed a burst in the growth of garlic mustard at the same time, however, with what seems like a shorter time between the beginning of their growth and the opening of their flowers than has taken place in previous years. It also appears to me that other plants are not quite on their ordinary schedule. Some of my early daffodils and late daffodils have come into bloom at the same time this year, for example. I know that gardeners are prone to subjective misinterpretations of what’s going on with their plants, however. Maybe I’m seeing a pattern that isn’t there. Has anyone else noticed something similar in their gardens?
Yep. Some gardeners do keep track (with more or less accuracy, depending on method of tracking) of which things come into bloom when, and some of the early flowers seem to have been slowed down by our late cold and snowy spell this year. So, there are more things in bloom at once. The plants adapt fine to this: humans should also adapt and take photos while everything looks so incredible!