The reminders of spring are popping up every day, and just when most of us are going out and straightening up the yard and collecting all the junk that has accumulated over the past six months, some of us bravely get busy planting flowers. That is really a number one gardening no-no here. New residents are usually advised, by their realtor or family, not to be fooled by the sudden elevated temperatures and sunny days in March and April. Take a close look at your neighbors yards this month. See many green plants thriving?
The ones that are the most resilient in your neighbor’s yards might be specimens planted in the fall many years previously. The hardiest of them in this location seem to sprout out unnoticed really. Tulips and crocuses are the real “early birds,” not unlike the brave robins, who often lose their youngest when their nests tumble to the ground. The spring winds, rain, graupel and snow storms blast through and wreak havoc. The earliest bloomers may seem to spring up out of the ground suddenly, yet when they appear here before Memorial Day, it is not unexpected.
It does seem that some of the regular county fair prize winners are planting earlier, but it doesn’t happen frequently. In fact, unless they have kept all those budding starts inside for a bit they won’t do as well when they are finally put outside. Ask around, and most of your neighbors and friends will advise you to wait.
You will soon discover that the recommendation to wait until after the end of May works the best. Those flurries of snow in April and sometimes May dump a few inches, and those fragile starts stop growing. Take it from someone who has not paid heed every year to those to those warnings. I may now be a long-time resident myself but some years, my midwestern childhood prevails. I admit some years I am tempted by all the bedding plants I see in the flower boxes appearing too close to home. I hold myself to be non-competitive, yet am bothered by my neighbors’ and friends’ yards, who appear to have not only “green thumbs,” but eight fingers to get the soil ready for planting. Go back outside and ask around. I dare you. Trying to recreate childhood versions of spring, especially if one grew up somewhere else, is a thing. This myopic vision of green growing plants does not work in this geographic location — usually.
During drought years, my friends report their yards greening up much earlier. Yet, spring turns into summer earlier as well. The problem is that no one is listening to the old-timers telling these enthusiastic residents to wait to plant until after Memorial Day-May 30. They need only to check out the online dictionary definition of Spring. Siri or another robotic voice reassures you that your version of spring is linked to a verb. It has the number one entry linked to as to “jump up suddenly and move forward’
Don’t listen to that dictionary definition of this word for a season. We live in a time zone you have already sprung forward to change the time (Daylight Savings Time). So now wait for the required Fall Back! Proclamation at the end of summer. Wait!
By DOLLY VISCARDI
