Cait's Garden

Well, this IS a big deal for me. My 100th post to this little blog in less than two years. If I lived in a place with warm winters, who knows how many posts I’d have by now. Of  course, with the warm winter and spring we’ve had, who knows what the future holds.

Speaking of said warm spring, after two weeks in the upper 70s and lower 80s, all the growing things are out of whack. The crocuses, daffodils, forsythia, and magnolia trees are all blooming now, at the same time. The latter three should not be blooming till April, April, and May, respectively. My lilac bushes are nearing bloom, as well as my viburnum and hyacinths. In March. I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen in April and May. All our gardening expectations have been thrown out the window. We are the New South.

One consequence of the warm winter is a plethora of grass in my flower beds. There is always some that creeps in and must be pulled out every spring, but this has reached epic proportions. I have been wielding my garden knife quite heavily in recent days trying to find the little perennials under the large tufts of invasive grass.

A more positive (yet still slightly alarming) consequence of the warm weather is that plants that spread have spread to an unprecedented level over the winter. For example,  I have enough bee balm to populate several gardens now. I will be looking for good homes for a few clumps this spring.

No one looking at my flower beds now would ever expect them to look like the photo below. It’s pretty much a shorn wasteland at present, with little green tufts at ground level. If you want to convince someone to become a gardener, I wouldn’t let them see your garden right now. You’ll scare them off. Every spring I am amazed at how things grow in the space of a few weeks. Although this year, I wonder if I’ll have coneflowers in May instead of July!