Did spring sprung?
March 13th, 2012
I’ll probably be sorry for saying this, but I think spring is here.
At least nature and its plants are acting like it is.
After three weeks of non-stop talks and garden shows, I finally got outside on Sunday to notice blooming daffodils, a nice crop of newly germinated weeds and even a few unfurled rose leaves.
Moths and house flies are active already, too, and the stinkbugs are trying to get back outside.
If I had to guess what time of year it is without looking at a calendar, I’d say early April.
So at the risk of violating Murphy’s Law, I decided to go ahead and follow nature’s lead.
I got a lot of my spring pruning and cleanup done, and I went ahead and transplanted a few perennials and young shrubs. I even planted radishes, lettuce, spinach, onions and peas. I’ve never planted any of those this early.
If the weather stays on this course, we’d gradually slide into real spring and have no dire consequences. The result would be that we just got a really early start to the growing season.
Despite the early bug and weed activity, I’ll take that.
The problem would be if a sudden nosedive in temperature happens after the plants have broken dormancy.
Most of our landscape plants are very good about staying in a dormant “safe mode” where they’re equipped to handle cold weather in winter. But once the plants get enough cues that the coast is clear, they begin to push out those tender leaf buds and speed the development of flower buds.
At that point they become much more vulnerable to the kind of cold damage that they would’ve fended off weeks earlier.
There’s not a whole lot we can do to head off damage to cherry blossoms, for example, that freeze if the temperature dips to 19 degrees after they’ve begun to open. Or to prevent the tips of bulb foliage from browning if we get a night or two down into the teens 2 weeks from now.
I’m just hoping we don’t get any brutally cold surprises from here on out.
If we do, I figure the worst my early action will cost me is a few dollars of wasted seeds and the time spent replanting.
On the other hand, I got to thinking about the reverse consequences of waiting… what if a really early spring is followed by a really early summer?
At this rate, it’s not unthinkable that May could bring temperatures in the 90s, possibly with a dish of drought on the side.
In that case, my poor April-planted radishes would taste like hot peppers, and the lettuce would go bitter and bolt to seed before it ever had the honor of being selected for a salad plate.
It puts us in a tizzy, doesn’t it? What’s an innocent gardener to do?
I say let’s get started.
But I’m not draining the gas out of my snow blower until June.
George, Do you think it is ok to plant trees right now? I need to replace a Forest Pansy and an Autumn maple that didn’t make it through last year’s storms.
Thanks for adressing this-I was tempted to email you anyway about it
Also, can you think of any reason why I shouldn’t use the dead grass I just trimmed off of the ornamental grasses to mulch my veggie beds this year?
I can give you a definite maybe on that one.
Right now, the ground isn’t soggy at all. In fact, the soil is unusually warm and dry for this early in the season. If the current weather trend holds up and we slide right into the “real” spring, planting now is fine.
But I can’t rule out that we’ll end up with lows in the teens and a sudden erratic blizzard two weeks from now. So who knows?
On the other hand, I can’t rule out that we’ll be in the 90s and in the beginning stage of a season-long horrid drought that would make waiting even worse.
Personally, I’m following nature’s lead and getting busy as if spring has already sprung. I’ve transplanted a few things and already started my cool-season vegetable garden.
This whole weird-weather when-to-plant thing is the subject of my e-column this week at http://georgeweigel.net/georges-current-ramblings-and-readlings/did-spring-sprung#more-3321.
One drawback you might run into is the garden-center availability of new trees. Now is unusually early for planting, so I’m not sure how fast garden centers and growers are going to move up their usual delivery schedules.
George
I can think of only one argument against — unwanted seeding.
Some ornamental grasses (miscanthus, switchgrass, northern sea oats and fountaingrass, for example) can produce mature seeds that can drop and sprout new plants.
I haven’t found that to happen much in my own yard, but it is possible that seeds from last year’s inflorescences (“plumes” or seedheads) will germinate in the nice soil and moisture of a vegetable bed.
If you’re concerned that’s a threat, an easy fix would be to clip off the seedheads first and use only the grass blades as mulch.
Otherwise, this grass will act a lot like straw mulch in the vegetable garden.
George
I’m with you for an early start. I just put down corn gluten today. Do you think it’s too early??
Just recently found your blog and am enjoying reading all your insight! I am a new gardener to this area and have taken some of your advice. Do you have a Facebook page that people can “like” to promote your blog?