Gardening — Early Spring
Where we live, south eastern Canada in Zone 5–6, in a good year the snow has gone by early to mid March. Unfortunately, sometimes just as you sigh a sigh of relief, another snow fall happens in April. Then you curse.
The late snow storms are horrible because they usually happen when the temperatures are in the -2 to -4 C range, which means the snow will be very heavy and hard to shovel and or blow.
The Winter of 2016–17 has not been too horrible, and the amount of snow has been tolerable. In the last few days we have had see-saw temperatures, as low as -10 and as high as +12C which tempted some of us to get started on Spring garden work.
When I saw a lovely sunny day, with the temperature rising to 11C, I got out the gardening clothes and tools and got out side to do some cleanup.
Working in the front garden is fun because one after another other neighbours come by to see what one is doing and to chat. Everyone is loving the mild weather. John drops over with his lovely Golden and chats. Julie comes along and wants to know do I think it’s spring.
An easy first target was the bed where the Siberian Iris grow. Their dead leaves mix in and hold the various Maple leaves. Sadly the Siberian Iris leaves must be cut, since they are tough and stringy. If one tries to pull them off, one gets nowhere, fast. Once cut loose however, the whole mess, including any lingering Maple leaves, can be raked up.
More raking will be required, to completely clean the bed, but can wait a bit, while I move on to more important areas.
Below is a reminder as to why the Siberian Iris are such a treasure in the Spring garden and are worth the cleanup annoyances.
My next area of concern was underneath the large Maple in the front garden. I have established a groundcover bed under it because I found that grass didn’t grow well there, and because the tree has very raised roots, attempts to cut the grass were hurting the exposed roots.
It is a known fact that tree roots and grass roots each compete for nutrients and water and due to its larger size, the tree usually wins. Below you can see how ratty the grass was, and you can follow the lines where the roots run.
The groundcover plants I selected are shallow rooted and the tree seems better with this arrangement.
Some of those plants include Greek Oregano; Creeping Jenny; Mother of Thyme; Sweet Violets; Sedum; and Prunella.
This tree has other issues which will shorten it’s life. The vertical cracks in the trunk are caused by a fungal infection called Wetwood. This disease is not treatable according to several arborists, and will eventually weaken the tree and kill it..
The area is tricky to clear in the spring because leaves get trapped under everything and if one indulges in brisk raking, one can easily damage small spring bulbs and rhizomes growing there.
The various bearded and mini Iris also produce long, dried out leaves, but unlike the Siberian Iris, these dry leaves are easily pulled off.
By the time I had cleared the tree bed, it was getting on for lunch time and my stomach was giving me hate messages. Reluctantly, I put away the tools, finished putting debris in the paper garden bags, and headed in for food.
Unfortunately, the next day, Winter temperatures returned -12 with windchills of -20 — yikes!
I will return to the cleanup job as soon as the weather returns to warm.
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