Good morning, and the lion is sleeping. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Here in Denver, March came in like a cute little fuzzy kitten. Although the official highs out at the airport were about 10° lower (the airport is actually in Kansas), in Denver proper the month started with a high of 72°; Wednesday — my day off — it was "only" 67°, then warmed back up to 71° on Thursday.
Now we're in a patch of unsettled weather which came in late Thursday, bringing highs down into the 40s and giving us a few spits of rain. But it's all good; just as it should be in early March. The forecast says we'll have off-and-on sunny-then-not and spits of rain/snow with cool temperatures through the middle of next week.
Ahh.... spring!
I ask you, is there anything better than that first day of gardening each season, when the sky is a beautiful robin-egg blue, the sun is warm on your skin yet the air is still cool?
Here in Denver, that first day isn't necessarily the first mid-60s day of the year; indeed, the first mid-60s day usually occurs some time in late January or early February.
No, there is some mystical combination between the temperature, and the angle of the sun, and the color of the sky that issues an imperative call to dig out the garden gloves and start raking up the over-winter detritus, then grab the pruning shears to hack at the roses.
If chlorophyll runs in your veins you must answer the call.
Must, I tell you.
And so Wednesday found me wielding my favorite whisk rake in the front beds, clearing out the remains from of last year's garden, the leaves and trash that had blown in over the winter, and checking for new growth. Although I started out wearing a light jacket, within 15 minutes I'd shed it and labored in short sleeves.
The newly-cleared areas showed poppies which had self-seeded from last year had sprouted. Annual poppies are easy to grow, but also tricky: they demand cool temperatures and even moisture to germinate so if you're just a couple of weeks late, or if it warms up just a little earlier than usual, your seeds just won't grow. As I had bought seed for several new varieties of poppies this year (packages for "peony flowered" poppies caught my eye and refused to let go until I bought them), it was timely to scatter the seeds — especially as this weekend's rain will provide the necessary moisture for germination.
As I raked dead leaves from the lemon thyme the scent of citrus was so thick a passer-by asked what the wonderful smell was. She was surprised that it was coming from thyme, and not from the abundance of crocus that are blooming.
And as I cleaned up the leaves which had fallen from the rugosa hansa rose I noted that the first little red growth buds were showing on the rose canes, so I grabbed the pruning sheers and whacked it back. Usually I end up putting off pruning the rugosa because it is such a prickly mess to work with (and if I wait long enough, sometimes the Mister will take it upon himself to whack it back). But this year the job was accomplished in good time so I won't have the blooms delayed for a month due to late pruning.
I cleared out old iris leaves, clipped back the tri-colored sage, cleared out the dead foliage from the asters and achillea, pruned the lavender and got everything in the main beds ready for the season.
I still have the parking-strip planter boxes to finish clearing out; and there is a giant pile of plant debris stacked next to the porch waiting for me to haul it around back, chop it up and mix in with winter's kitchen scraps — the beginning of the new year's first batch of compost cooking.
But I ended Wednesday feeling well satisfied with the day's labors.
The first day of gardening season — it's better than Christmas.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your garden?