Too Early

During the start of spring cleaning my garden, I wandered around with a camera on Saturday and took note of the first of the 2012 blooms.  Plants are sprouting everywhere, popping up here and opening tender leaves there.  And it is far too early to consider we've seen the last of Winter.

I know, my Darlings (speaking to the daffodils now), that you're far past ready to stick up your heads and get growing. Like the early worm for the migrating birds, however, you're just going to get yourselves hurt.  Yes, we've seen a lot of days in the 60's and 70's, and I know it was above 60 and sunny for the last trio of days, but the weatherperson tells us it will then get cold again.  Highs in the 50's, lows in the 30's for the rest of the week.      



Wasting my breath, aren't I?  I've got about as good a chance of the bulbs listening to me as I do getting Mrs. ProfessorRoush and her diminutive clone to follow my lead.  Look at the first beautiful blooms that are out already.  I found my first Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica) up and starting to bloom this weekend, glorious in its breathtaking blue reflection of the Kansas sky. 





And, popping up among the roses, a bright cheerful Iris reticulata to contrast its dark blue and yellow against the brown grass mulch.















Worst of all, for me, is the fact that a number of roses are beginning to leaf out, just like the 'Ballerina' at the right.  Too fast.  Too fast, my dancing beauty, because your thin canes and tender leaves are just going to be left shivering in the wind.


A prayer, please, for those who are about to get slammed with a late freeze.  You know it's coming.  I know it's coming.  We can forecast it.  The plants can only carry the history of climate in their genes.  So many cold days followed by so many warming days and they think it's time to bloom.  Well, my Loves, not this year do the old patterns work.  Be slow this year.  Be patient this year.  Listen not to the warm sunlight.  Listen not to the warming southern winds. This is Kansas, not Florida.  Hell's demons spend their Spring Break on our prairies. 

My Cheatin' Hands

I almost didn't.  Despite a predicted temperature of 63F, the wind was howling cold from the North all day yesterday, and inside the house it was warm and cozy.  The wind may howl like the dickens outside my doors, but the clamor only serves to comfort me since it can't reach indoors.  And, if you're wondering where I've been from blogging, I was deep inside the third book of The Hunger Games series, engrossed in the struggle for independence of the rebels led by Katniss, the Mockingjay.  For those who haven't yet indulged, I can only say that my daughter recommended them to me approximately 12 days ago and I've been nose deep in the drama ever since.  If you're going to start them, read fast, because the movie comes out in a couple of weeks.

So, I almost didn't go outside to work in the garden this weekend.  Mind you, I'm aching for the opportunity, embittered for lack of exercise and lack of green surroundings, but it took everything I had to leave the cozy confines of hearth and couch and attempt to stand upright against a 40 mph wind.  Guilt finally won out over sloth and so I closed the book and bundled up in multiple layers of clothing, planning to shed them as I warmed.  After some consideration, I decided to work first clearing the South bed, behind the house, where I'd have some shelter from the worst of the gale. 

And it was there, clearing the crackly remnants of Brown-eyed Susans and the limp dead daylily leaves, that I learned to harness, rather than fight, the power of the wind in my garden.  I realized quite quickly that all I had to do was pull up the dead leaves, toss them up a few feet into the air, and they were gone evermore, whisked away by the brisk wind into the next county. Well, at least they disappeared into the taller prairie grass of my pasture, sure to add their rotting remains over time to the richness of the prairie.  I never got out my Sheetbarrow, nor even a basket, just some trimming tools and thick gloves and the ground was cleared of debris faster than it took to think about it.  I did spend a few minutes looking to the West and wondering if we were going to get a sprinkle or a little snow, as you can see by the picture above.  But, a few snips here and there on the shrub roses, and my back patio bed was ready for the Spring. 

Some of you, I know, will consider this a clear act of garden cheating.  I didn't sweat, I didn't get sore from lugging heavy piles of debris around the yard, and I accomplished the job in about 1/3rd the normal time. I would venture to argue, on my lazy behalf, that I executed a brilliant display of defiance, laughing in the face of the wind, harnessing it to do my bidding.  The only people who could possible differ with that conclusion might be my neighbors, who, I suppose, could have a clump or two of dead daylily leaves resting around their shrubs this morning. More likely, all that debris is somewhere in Missouri by now.

And anyway, as the country songs say, it ain't cheatin' till you're caught.

Pink Sunrise

Just as a tongue-in-cheek post at my readers who follow this blog from states other than the gardening utopia of Kansas, I present to you the sunrise of yesterday morning, taken on my short drive to work.  It's only an i-Phone picture, completely unedited,  but I think it represents why I persist in fighting the flint rock and prairie fires to garden here.

The colorful sunrise turned into a really nice, sunny afternoon suitable to be outside sans coat, and ProfessorRoush took the afternoon off to trim the ornamental grasses off, mow the remnants of the tall prairie grasses, and spray dormant oil on the fruit trees and roses.  What a blissful day!

Totally aside from the beauty of yesterday morning, are others on Google's Blogger having trouble using the blogger interface because Blogger has stopped supporting Internet Explorer?  Google seems to be forcing me to go to Google Chrome and that's just going to be a cold day in Kansas because Google Chrome, frankly, sucks.  I'm about ready to switch blogging platforms if they don't reconsider, and if I get fed up and that happens, I'll post the new link here and hope you migrate with me.

Bit of Yellow

Here is it again, another sign of an incredibly early Spring.  My first glimpse of yellow Snow Crocus (Crocus chrysanthus) occurred this year on 2/22/12.  The previous record of my notes was on 2/25/09.  In 2009, I have a note that the forsythia started on 3/6/12;  which means that we're only a couple of weeks off of undeniable Spring.  And I've done absolutely nothing yet to clear the garden, dormant spray the fruit tress, or cut off the ornamental grasses. As it so happens, though, this afternoon is supposed to reach a sunny high of 67F, so I'm already planning to play hooky after lunch.  See ya tomorrow with a full report!