There is a need for caution in planning for spring additions to the garden in the winter months. Certainly, this is an ideal time for contemplation, but the analysis of existing plantings can be made more difficult by the absence of foliage. I understand the argument that this is the proper time to see the…
Month: January 2014
The scent of winter
Despite the horrid cold of recent days, the vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis, above) blooms on, though the ribbon-like petals curl tightly in the worst of the freeze for protection (below). My wife tells me that scents are muted by the cold, but I’ve never paid much attention to this because I’m generally resistant to…
The problem with cold
As is typical of the winter months in northwestern Virginia, temperatures vary considerably, and the daily high might be fifty-five one afternoon, and then seventeen the next. While plants are dormant these fluctuations are of little consequence, and little or no damage is done, though the cold is often of great concern to gardeners. Long ago…
A time for inspiration
I admit without apology, but also with no pride, that I am not a book reader. For better or worse, I haven’t the attention span to relax for a few hours with a good book, though I read the newspaper religiously, and I will wade through the densest academic writings, so long as they are…
Shrubs in the flowering winter garden
I am likely to do as little work as I can get away with through the winter (and certainly most gardening chores can be delayed unless some catastrophe strikes), but these months drag on far too long. At some point there will be a few bright, sunny days when I’m anxious to get out, until…
Mistaken identity
The nursery owner was a bit of a kook. Or, perhaps he was overly anxious to make a sale, any sale. The recession had been raging for several years at this point, and many neighboring tree growers in mid Tennessee had fallen on hard times. It appeared that few trees had left this fellow’s fields…
A good year
I’m not much on looking back, perhaps because my memory is so poor I often can barely recall if something happened a year ago, or three. In any case, it seems to do little good to look backwards. Of course, there are lessons learned through successes and failures, but I gain little from this annual…
When is enough, enough?
I can state with certainty that it’s possible to have too many trees in one garden. I don’t believe that I’ve quite reached that point (regardless of my wife’s thinking on this), but there are portions of the garden where one tree stretches to touch the next, and then the next. I don’t consider this…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 