Good morning, and winter is going. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Once more Denver had a week of incipient springtime interrupted by snow. Last Sunday the high was 72° here in Denver proper.
On Thursday morning we were coated by wet, sloppy snow, which fell off and on through the morning.
And by Thursday afternoon……
…the budded spring flowers had shaken off their little caps of snow.
The hyacinth are looking really crappy this year. They were hit hard last year by the bout of extreme cold the 2nd week in April, when we went from 71° on April 8, to highs in the low 20s on April 9 and 10, and a low of 6° on April 10. It was three days of temperatures 30° below normal and hit right as the hyacinth were peaking. I'm going to give them a good dose of composted manure (I'll have to buy it), bone meal and blood meal this spring — and then fill in that extra-enriched soil during this growing season with gladiolas, to mark where I'll need to plant new hyacinth next fall.
I'm also figuring out some of the "new" logistics of our yard — although some of the changes took place years ago, I'm still adapting to them.
Over the last several years I've been planting strawberries in different areas of the front beds to try and find places they like, and I finally have. They really like the corner of the porch where the Dr. Huey rose used to be, and along the west side of the front flower beds. Those spots get a little more water than the rest of the yard, some from the rain gutters, and some from the neighbors' lawn-watering. We used to have a great strawberry patch in the back yard — but when we put an addition on the house and they were shaded out.
Another change I'm still adapting to is how much different the drip-line of the front porch is since we put up rain gutters — about the same time we did the addition. I keep forgetting the little foot-wide strip in front of the porch is now one of the driest places in the yard. I'm thinking lavender is likely the answer. I mean, a lavender managed to volunteer there, so I can just let the lavenders go to seed, and then stack the clippings next to the porch so they can plant themselves.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?