Spring into inaction

I did stain the deck! The pear tree espalier is starting to green up. Even has some blossoms.

Snow the first week of May? Yeah, we had that.

But there were nice days too. I got out and stained our deck. I just needed 48 hours of above 45º with days of no direct sunlight, and no precipitation for the 48 hours. I found that magic time this past week. Though I think we had that sort of weather through much of March.

The tulips in the hellstrip are in a mad crescendo currently.

I see passersby stopping all day long to check them out. Some even stop to take pictures. I’ve always thought that whatever you do in your front yard you do for the neighborhood. I think the effort and expense out there is worth every bit. The tulips are all from Colorblends Wholesale Flowerbulbs.

Tulips in front of the Dutch Colonial house. A match made in Holland.

This is normally the weekend we buy our annuals to fill baskets, boxes and pots.

Not happening. Since many garden centers are open, but many have different shopping “strategies” to keep customers safe and healthy. We’ll have to strategize how best to get our annuals. Some garden centers are order-online-pick-up-curbside, some are by appointment, some allow a small number in the store at a time, some are doing online-ordering with delivery.

It’s definitely a conservative year, financially, for us. My wife works for an airline and we aren’t really sure what will happen, income-wise, come fall. We’ll do up our usual window boxes and baskets, but not much more, as in the past.

We’ve gotten out there to do some cleaning up but nothing significant – it’s too early. There’s been some weeding, clipping, and chipping.

We can’t travel, but we did walk over to the Japanese Garden in Delaware Park to see the cherry trees in bloom. I was surprised there wasn’t a bit more physical distancing going on, but it was beautiful.

No Garden Walk Buffalo this year

We’ll change from having the two-day Garden Walk Buffalo in July this year to a (mostly) online appreciation of Buffalo’s gardens for the month of July.

It’s called Buffalo Garden Views: Sharing in July. It was sad to make the final decision to not hold the Walk this year, it’s 26th. It’s too big an undertaking to plan and then cancel and event for 65,000+ people – and more than 400 gardens! Most importantly, the group was concerned for the health and well-being of the gardeners, guests and volunteers – many of whom fall into the “at-risk” category, by virtue of age.

So I’ve spent these colder weekend days working on Buffalo Garden Views. Filling up every day of the month with online content is a big undertaking and huge team effort. I’ll post more about it in the upcoming weeks, once we settle on July’s activities.

In the meantime, here’s what’s going on in the garden…

The hanging Hens & Chicks and sedum vertical garden looks great. I didn’t cover it this winter with burlap. It wasn’t that harsh a winter. It’s never looked this good this early. I usually have to buy a dozen or more Hens & Chicks to fill in. This year I won’t have to. Even the ones that look brown and dead in this photo are actually alive an growing.

Last year I added some chicken wire to the arbor uprights where the clematis vines grow. After some clean-up of dead vines, they easily got clipped onto the wire. No more sloppy tying to the pole with ugly plastic ties. These reusable clips my wife found in Germany.

For my wife’s birthday, I bought her a squirrel picnic table. Don’t worry, I got her better gifts too. We’re still married. Haven’t seen a squirrel near it yet.

One of my favorite rites of spring – using the compost made over the winter.

Sexy looking compost, no?

 

And for your enjoyment, tulips and snowflakes. May their sightings be rare…