A St. Patrick's Day Surprise!

This was the scene last week: heaps of snow... not very interesting -- or very spring-like!

Hello! Spring is progressing here in Iowa, more or less. In order to get rid of winter and usher in springtime, there are specific steps that need to happen:

1. Temperatures above freezing (sunshine nice too)
2. Get rid of snow
3. Warm the soil
4. Life stirs within the soil, and plant growth begins!

We've finally been making some progress in these steps, after a long, cold winter in which we still had the same snow on the ground for at least six weeks. Temperatures just never got warm enough to melt it entirely, so we still had large piles of snow everywhere, like the pile in the first picture.

This past week was finally warm and sunny, and also very windy for a few days, which really helped melt the snow and dry up the soggy ground. 

Time lapse photography:

Friday, March 8 (this is how my Paradise Garden has looked pretty much all winter).

Monday, March 11 (Things are looking promising!)

Tuesday, March 12 (A good day's progress...)

Wednesday March 13 (Almost there...)

Thursday, March 14 (Yay!)

Friday, March 15 (The wind has even dried things off.)

It was lovely to watch the daily progress of getting rid of the snow and ice, after living with them for so long. We all sat on the sunny front porch yesterday in our bare feet (a literal rite of spring that we look forward to every winter), and talked about how much we loved a St. Patrick's Day that was warm, sunny and NOT snowy. The 10-day forecast called for NO snow in the next week and a half.

But what greeted me this morning??

This!

Back to the drawing board..... (The sidewalks were too warm already for the snow to stick, though.)

Yes, it's beautiful.

In fact, it doesn't even look like real snow, but more like Hollywood studio snow. The phrase "magic snow" came to my mind as I walked around seeing how it coated everything with such picturesque clumps.

The new snow is already melting as soon as the sun shines on it. It'll probably be gone by tomorrow or the next day, as the temps are forecast to be in the mid-forties today and the fifties for the rest of the week. And sunny every day! (We'll see if those weathermen redeem themselves with some accurate forecasts....)

Spring is coming, despite our brief, and quite picturesque, setback. The bulbs are poking up in a few warmest spots. I hear birds chirping once again. And the sunshine is so lovely and warm. I'm so enjoying this beginning of springtime.

I hope you also are enjoying the unfolding of spring in your own gardens. Thanks for reading! -Beth

The End of February - At Last!

Hard to believe this was the scene in my Paradise Garden last September....

Greetings! It's been several months since I last posted, since there's not much new to see in my gardens -- just more of the white stuff, and ominously, the clear stuff. This has been a hard winter in terms of snow, ice and severe cold.

We got down to -28°F (-33.3°C) on January 31, which is pretty cold even for Iowa (not quite a record low for my southeast area of Iowa, but only warmer by a few degrees -- northern parts of the state have gotten down to all-time lows of -47°F in the past, which is a temperature not fit for human habitation, in my opinion). The local schools have been closed so often that the school year will need to be extended for two weeks.

I haven't had to go outside on the very coldest days, thank goodness, but the driving still hasn't been easy. We had an ice storm a couple of weeks ago, which turned my driveway into a 200-yard-long, solid sheet of ice -- ending with a large ditch on the other side of the road at the bottom, which is pretty scary to be sliding toward. My husband had to park his car on the road several times and trudge up the 200 yards to the house, because it was too icy to drive up and he got stuck.

I got stuck on our low-priority gravel road after a snowstorm last month. I got only halfway up the hill on our road, and then had to reverse all the way back to our driveway -- half a mile in reverse, which took almost 10 minutes, before I could turn around and try going the other direction. That wasn't a very fun day.

But at least the heavy snowfalls have provided insulation during our extreme low temps, which probably helped with plant survival -- we'll see in April if this is actually true....

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the snow and ice -- taken from inside my house, of course. Some of them are undeniably pretty:

This has been what the Paradise Garden has looked like during most of this winter.

Then we got the snow and the Big Ice a couple weeks ago.

A closeup of the fascinating icicles that formed on the pergola in the PG.

Brrr...

The West Terrace, every branch outlined in ice.

Looking out across the fields, everything covered in ice.

I'll certainly be glad when some warmer temperatures arrive and bulbs start poking out from the solidly frozen ground, in that always-welcome sign of spring. I thought I heard a bird chip the other day -- I sort of hope not, poor thing -- it's back too early!

But being closed in for the winter has allowed me to work on finishing up and publishing my book about Iowa garden history -- it will be more difficult to do this once nice temperatures arrive and I want to do some work outside. March is only a few days away, and springtime can't be far off then, can it?

Hope you are seeing signs of impending spring in your own gardens. Thanks for reading! -Beth

Still sunny and tropical in my sunroom, thank goodness!

A HOT Memorial Day Weekend!

This might be slightly skewed by the air conditioner ten feet away, but not by more than a few degrees....

Greetings! Hot days here in Iowa -- it's been in the upper 90s most of the past week, which has meant a very short spring, after being so cold and snowy until mid-April. As I wrote back in early April, I was worried that we'd have only about five weeks to work before it got too hot to move plants safely or work outside comfortably, and I was right to be worried.

I've been trying to do things outside in the morning and evening, but it was already 90°F by 8 a.m. today, and the evenings stay in the upper 80s (plus we've had our usual May gnats, which seem to be worse in the evenings). So I've mostly just been watering things around 11 p.m.by flashlight, which is actually a very pleasant time to be outside....

I have been working this weekend on the getting the fountain to function in my new Islamic-style Paradise Garden. I bought a fountain pump and, after cutting a hole in the bottom of the galvanized milk can, I set the can on several bricks in the sheep tank and installed the pump underneath the can, with the output tube inside the can, and sealing around the hole in the bottom of the can with lots of plumber's putty. I then filled the tank and turned on the pump.

The good news is that it looked very nice, water bubbling gently out the top of the milk can and overflowing into the tank, just as I had planned. The bad news is that the milk can is apparently just decorative in nature, not water-tight in the least. Water streamed out of every rivet hole in the can, which necessitated taking apart the fountain and buying some spray sealant, with which I sprayed the inside of every seam in the can several times. We'll see if that does the trick, after the sealant has dried and cured. Perhaps this evening I'll try filling it again.

I've also been giving the boxwood hedges in the Herb Garden their annual trim. You can see the difference it makes in the above photo, taken midway through the job. It's much easier and quicker now that I have a cordless trimmer, even if I do have to take a couple of (very welcome) breaks to recharge the batteries.

Ah. Much more orderly now.

Anyway, here are a few highlights of the late May garden -- but I've had to keep my eye out and be quick about taking photos, as the heat means that many of these lovely flowers go over in the blink of an eye.

A single peony in the Rainbow Border.

A beautiful deep red peony in the same border, 'Red Charm', I think.

These weren't open yesterday...

Lots of yellow irises in the Yellow Garden.

Multi-hued irises and Painted Daisies (Tanacetum coccineum) in the Front Border.

We bought a large rock and rolled it off the back of our pickup truck into the North Border, and I think it looks quite nice there, drawing the eye.

Clematis and veronica near our front steps.

Anyway, I'll spend the afternoon today inside keeping cool in the air conditioning -- much like nearly every other day this past week. It will give me a good chance to read and catch up on what's going on in your gardens.

Hope you're enjoying cool and pleasant days in your gardens (I can't believe I'm already writing this, after all my wishes for warmer days until very recently...).

Thanks for reading! -Beth

Where the #$%@ is spring??

Another 1-3 inches of snow again?!

The forecast calls for snow again tomorrow! This will be the fourth time it has snowed here in the past two weeks. The average last snow date in this part of Iowa is around the end of March, which isn't to say that it never snows in April -- just not four times! And April 18th is getting to be pretty late in April for snow -- by this time last year, temperatures were nearly 80°F.

But I'm hopeful that this will be the last time it snows this spring, and that warmer days are coming after tomorrow. The ten-day forecast looks pretty good: mostly sunny and temperatures in the 50s and 60s, which is what they should be in mid-April.

Despite the frequent bouts of snow, a few stalwart bulbs have been blooming, although not completely unaffected by the unusually cold temperatures:

Daffodils next to the house in a south-facing border.

More daffs on the east side of our house.

Some hyacinths are blooming in the North Border, although I think the cold has stunted their growth. They're only a few inches tall and look ridiculously stubby. But they still smell nice though, way down next to the ground.

These crown imperial fritillarias are similarly afflicted -- not quite blooming yet, but still only about ten inches in height. They don't smell as nice as the hyacinths. :-)

I'm hoping that the sun and warmth will encourage more perennials and bulbs to emerge from the ground. Things are definitely coming up in some areas, but not everything yet, and not everywhere.

It's not just that I want to enjoy warm spring days -- although I do, of course. But also, I'm itching to get started on the new garden area that I'm planning. And I can't do that until I can move some perennials and late bulbs around, which I can't do until they're all up and I can see where they are. It's kind of frustrating -- I feel sure you understand.

Plus, I'm also worried that I have so many things that I want to do in the gardens this spring, and that despite the late start to spring, it will still get too hot to work outside comfortably, and move plants safely, by the end of May as usual. We may only have a five week window to work, which sounds like an awfully short time to get everything done.

I have already been able to work outside a few times this spring. Several days in March were nice enough to start cutting back and raking out borders. And then last Thursday was the first pleasant day since March: 75° and sunny! It was a glorious respite from the cold (but alas, followed by more cold, rain and snow last weekend). I did get quite a bit done (and enjoyed being outside doing it) on that beautiful day, though.

And today was pretty nice, nearly 50° and sunny, so I pruned my roses and did a few other things outside. With any luck, there'll be more days like today later in the week, and I'll soon be able to get started on my garden plans, which I will tell you about in a post soon.

I hope you are finally enjoying some warmer days in in your own gardens, and spring is arriving for you with beautiful weather and many spring flowers. Thanks for reading! -Beth

Spring Wake-Up

Winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis).

Springtime is slow to arrive this year, but it is arriving. I've been enjoying some warm, sunny days over the past weeks here in Iowa, and have been starting to cut back and rake out some of my garden beds, as well as start seeds and make garden plans for this year. But the ground remains colder than average this year, and early blooms are opening nearly a month later this year, compared to last. We impatient gardeners are always raring to go in spring, but I suppose this teaches us to be patient and concentrate on doing other things that still need to be done inside.

Caution: Falling Figs!  A huge Mysore Fig (Ficus drupacea), the largest in the United States
at 102 feet tall and 305 inches circumference. Our visit to the Edison & Ford Winter Estate in
Fort Myers, Florida was fascinating.

My husband and I spent four days in southwest Florida in late February, and that was a wonderful escape from winter and a preview of summer -- no wonder Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had winter estates down in that part of the world! We visited the Edison & Ford Winter Estate and the Naples Botanical Garden on our trip to Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Naples, and collected shells on the beaches of Sanibel Island, and it was a lovely trip.

But back to reality.... Actually, I was quite happy to return to Iowa to see our spring unfold, and it was sunny and 65°F when we returned (we really did bring back some of that Florida weather!). 

The little irises were blooming last week. (And something -- I suspect rabbits -- has been munching our tulips... Grrr.)

And one miniature daffodil has bloomed!

But I woke up this morning to this:

Ice, sleet and snow blowing in sideways with 30 mph gusts of wind!

Trees covered in ice.

Everything covered in ice, including the Yellow Garden, in which not a trace of yellow
can be discerned.

I was supposed to work at my store today, but as I live in the country on gravel roads and there's a severe winter travel advisory, my store will be closed today (along with many other businesses in town). It's a Snow Day! (A good day to catch up on reading garden blogs, to see what everyone's up to as spring slowly arrives.)

So I'll continue to stay inside, where it's cozy and warm, and enjoy my indoor garden:

Starting seeds inside. I'm still working on making my new greenhouse habitable for some of
the seedlings as they are potted on.

My Calamondin orange has both fruit and blooms.

My Dipladenia has been flowering during most of the winter -- much better than the Mandevilla I grew that stopped blooming and immediately fell prey to some sort of blight as soon as I brought it inside.

Even when it's not sunny, my sunroom is still a pretty nice place to be. On a sunny day, it's simply glorious. It's definitely
my Happy Place!

I've been making plans this spring for a new garden area, and eliminating several other areas that haven't been as satisfactory. I'll reveal my plans as soon as I have made some progress (which, with any luck, will happen in the next few weeks).

Until then, I hope you are are enjoying warm, sunny springtime days in your own gardens, as plants pop up and flowers open. I look forward to reading about your own spring plans, and I'm so glad you stopped by -- thanks for reading! -Beth

March: Both Spring and Winter at the Same Time

Hello, everyone! It's Mid-March now, and spring seems tantalizingly near. This March has been a mix of early spring and winter returning. February was unusually warm, as was the first week of March. A number of early spring flowers bloomed ahead of schedule in my gardens:

These rock garden iris on the south side of my house were the earliest thing to bloom here, in the last week of February.

These daffodils against the east side of my house
are always the first daffs to bloom.

Winter aconites are popping out near a large tree in my back yard.

But in the last week or so, we had one day where the temperature reached the low 70s, followed by an intense hailstorm, with 1&1/2-inch hail stones. This was followed a few days later by high winds that blew several shingles off of our garage roof. The insurance adjuster was out here yesterday, and said the roofs of our house, garage, two sheds and gazebo were all damaged.

Hail!

After a few more days of nice weather, snow arrived on Monday, followed by cold temps as low as 12°F, which cut short a few blooms outside:

The white stuff....

But the snow mostly melted by Friday (today). I even worked outside in today's sunny 60° temps.

Here's a project I wanted to get done, adding edging bricks to this bed in front of my garage. Grass keeps creeping in, and I'm hoping this will help.

Seed Starting

But mostly I've been working with starting flower seeds indoors (where the weather extremes don't make much difference), and taking care of the many tropical plants growing in my sunroom:

First I start the seeds on this shelf, on a heat mat.

Then the seedlings get a spot right in front of the south-facing sunny windows in my sunroom. The large pot at right, and the five square pots at left, are sweet peas in various stages of growing indoors.

My orange tree, which was attacked by some sort of fungal problem in January, seems recovered enough to flower with heavenly-scented tiny flowers, which I take to be a good sign. I've just been trying to keep it alive until I can put it outside in May, so this is encouraging.

Having a Winter Garden keeps me happy, even when snow, hail and high winds wreak havoc outside.

Warm weather followed by cold isn't just ruining a few of my own flowers: We're headed to Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks, a trip which I scheduled for this time of year specifically in order to see the famed Cherry Blossom Festival trees. Alas, most of the cherry trees bloomed several weeks ahead of schedule, and now they have been ruined by the ice storm that hit the Northeast this past week. But some of the trees may still be blooming when we go though, just not the well-known Yoshino trees. I'm sure there will be other beautiful things to see in Washington's many gardens: Mount Vernon, Dumbarton Oaks, the Smithsonian Gardens, the US Botanic Garden and also in Colonial Williamsburg's many small gardens, which I am hoping to see.

I hope your own gardens are weathering the... weather, and that spring will henceforth come in more like a lamb than a lion, in all our gardens. Thanks for reading! -Beth