Tulip Time

At last - color!  I don't do bulbs.  But fortunately, Ralph does.  He planted hundreds last fall.  He  also sticks gnomes all over and then tells everyone that I collect them.

We top-dress all the beds with compost every year and I always mean to get it done before the tulips bloom. But I never make it in time, so I end up having to spread it around the plants, and by the time I'm halfway through, I'm just throwing shovelfuls of compost all over and burying the tulip blooms.  This year it was done early enough so that didn't happen (okay, I didn't do it this year, Ralph did).

Compost is the key to a garden that produces flowers and vegetables consistently year after year.  I've often heard people say that their garden was great the first couple years, and then declined rapidly.  Even if you amended the soil initially, you need to replenish with organic material every year.  It's not difficult to do.  We get trailer loads of it from the municipal compost site, but the average gardener doesn't need that much.

If you don't have access to compost, you can enrich your soil by spreading a layer of shredded leaves on your gardens in fall.  When you rake them up, leave them in a wide circle on the lawn, about six inches deep, and mow over them.  Then spread them in the garden beds about two inches thick.  Use a much thicker layer in vegetable gardens - up to six inches.  Vegetables like a lot of organic matter and it has to be replenished every year, or you will notice that you don't get the yield you used to.  You will have to turn over the soil in spring, but nature will have done most of the work for you.  I always have loose, rich soil with dozens of fat earthworms in my vegetable garden.  And a fantastic crop.  Of course, in perennial beds you can't turn in leaves or compost, but that's alright.  The soil will benefit from top-dressing. Rain and earthworms will bring the nutrients to the roots.

I wonder if that red tulip feels out of place in a sea of purple and white.  Don't know how that got in there.

Bouquets in the house are the best reason to plant tulips.

Redbuds are blooming.

This is what happens when deer get to your rhododendrons.

In my last post I showed mama mourning dove sitting on her nest. Here are the results of her hard work.

Tulips are fleeting - enjoy them while you can!

Better Late Than Never

Finally!  Spring has arrived in southeastern Wisconsin.   The last time I posted, it was in the 40's.  It's been in the 70's the past several days.  I've been seeing the migratory birds (orioles, thrushes) and have bouquets in the house again.

Birds are nesting all over.  Every year someone makes a nest above the porch light.  I don't know why that spot is so appealing.  This year, it's a mourning dove.

We're right around the median date of the last frost.  I'm a little late getting the early vegetables in, but it's been raining almost every day.  I'm trying grass clippings as the mulch this year.  I'll report on how this works.  I've always used shredded paper, but it breaks down so fast that I have to replenish it once a month.

It's time to divide perennials.  Don't be shy about it - just sharpen your shovel go for it!  Some people are afraid to divide, thinking they will damage the plant.  But you improve the health and bloom of many plants by breaking them up.  Wait to divide iris until after they are done blooming, but almost everything else should be divided now.  May is the one of the busiest months for a gardener.  Divide established plants and install new perennials now, and the next few months are mostly watering, weeding, and deadheading. 

 

I know this doesn't qualify as a plant, but it adds color when there isn't much blooming.  Ralph makes the bottle trees. My part is to drink the wine so there are bottles to put on the trees.