I created this blog some years ago and never published a thing. Just like Robert Burns said, or at least I think he said, "The best laid plans of mice and man can still go wrong." I also might add that "life" has a way of creeping up on us and then slapping us down just when we think things are finally going our way. I know I am not alone in this, but over the last few years I have been quietly sinking down into an emotional hole that I just cannot climb out of. It appears to me that our society is suffering a severe case of political diarrhea combined with an unwillingness to accept the fact that no matter how different we may seem, we have far more in common with each other than difference. This blog is going to be my little place on the 'Net to help me work through my feelings and to share my love of gardening.
Gardeners are an optimistic lot. We have to be. To plant a teeny tiny seed in the earth and to nurture it, water it, feed it - love it, in the hopes that it will grow and thrive requires optimism. Now that I think about it, what the World needs is more gardeners. In fact what I think we need is a constitutional amendment that states all politicians and judges must be avid gardeners. Then let us see what happens. I would bet the World would become a more kinder place. Or at least I would hope it would be so.
I live close to the 45th parallel and garden in a zone 4b area. The significance of this is that my winter temperatures can dip to -30 F (which is -34 C) and remain there for days at a time. That is where the "b" part of zone 4b comes into play. With the continued global warming trend, the hardiness zones needed a little tweaking, thus a and b was created. 4b tends to have warmer temperatures than 4a which can make a huge difference in plant survival rates during the winter. I can attest to this as I enter my seventh year here and have only had one winter where it got to -30 F and that cold spell only lasted 2 days. Do not get me wrong, I am not gardening in a tropical climate. As proof of this, I submit the gardening year of 2020. I had an unusually late frost on June 13th and an early frost on Sep 15th. My frost-free season was barely 90 days long!
The photograph of my little owl friend dripping with icicles was taken in my yard on April 1st and is a reminder of a gardening "truth". I will start by stating that I do not believe their are many hard and fast rules in gardening, but if there were, probably the number one rule would be never to rush the season. I would call this a gardening truth. There probably is not a gardener alive that can deny the intoxicating feeling one gets from the first gentle warming breezes caressing the land after a long winter's slumber. The urge to plant can be irresistible, but resist we must. I am sure every gardener has a story about rushing to plant a tender vegetable transplant into the garden only to see the poor thing succumb to a late spring frost.
I hope you will follow along with me as I walk along my garden path. More importantly, I hope you will walk down your own garden path.
Cheers,
Tom
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