Garden News
It’s a gray, misty morning and the air is full of moisture. Sounds are muffled. There’s a promise of rain. I watched the thunderstorms boil up and float past us on radar yesterday. We’ll see if anything comes our way today and actually reaches us. Even a drop or two would do. But I’m not begging. The trees and grasses look fine, and this all feels normal.
I noticed a second bloom of leaves on the big oaks. They’ve looked a little sparse since the hard, hard freeze. It will be nice to have their canopies full again if that is what happens. An oddity of this spring is the tendency of the trees and shrubs to leaf out along the entire length of their branches, while the frozen tips remain bare. I suppose it’s a way of protecting the branches from the sun when it comes later this summer since they’ll be absent the shade ordinarily offered by the missing leaves on those frozen tips. An adjustment by nature for the hard reality of life.
My newly planted rudbeckia Indian summer has started to bloom, and both plants look nicely rooted, with flowers. It’s always touch-and-go after a new plant enters the garden. You water and wait, hoping the roots will take. It usually needs a big rain or two to seal the deal. We got it this year. I’ll keep my eye on them, of course, as the days lengthen and dry, but for now we’re good to go. And that, my friends, is all the garden news that fits on a gray, May day in this year of our lord, 2021.