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 April 2005 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Home & Garden April Pleasures By Maria Scrivani
~H. Fred AleI just love that quote! Who among us hasn’t made gardening mistakes? Gardening can truly enrich our knowledge and our lives if approached with this point of view. I am reminded of a garden speaker I once heard who said, “I don’t really feel that I’ve gotten to know a plant species unless I have killed some of them!” Don’t you love April? Every day there is something new to see out in the garden. Look at what is coming up. Are the seedlings weeds or desirables? If you are not sure, wait a bit. This is a great way to learn to recognize plants in the early stages. If the newly emerged plant is a weed you still have time to remove it later. (I still recall my early gardening days and the mistakes I made. I directly seeded marigolds into a garden bed and nurtured what I thought were marigold seedlings. I soon realized that I had a healthy patch of ragweed! I don’t know what happened to the marigolds. I probably pulled them out!) Wonderful surprises may await you. It is quite thrilling to find “volunteers” in the garden. Sometimes annuals will have reseeded but this is to be expected. It is the perennial reseeding or underground root spreading that can be a real surprise. I still do not know how the lungwort got into one of my gardens but it is most welcome. The mints are another story! (Does my next-door neighbor know why they now have that patch of lemon balm or how the raspberries got into their border?) One of the first plants to show life at this time of the year is the willow genus Salix. There are many species throughout the northern hemisphere. Pussy willows as well as other willows contain “salacin” similar to the active ingredient in aspirin, salicylic acid. Native Americans used both the bark and roots as an analgesic. Many Eastern and Central European countries use the pussy willow on Palm Sunday instead of palms. To grow more, take cuttings of about 6 inches to a foot. Place in water. Pot up after the roots are about 3 inches long. Plant the cuttings after the last frost (usually after May 15th in Western New York). To keep pussy willows strong, cut back hard, right after they bloom. Don’t wait too long or you will cut off next year’s blooms. To use for decoration, cut the pussy willows branches when the catkins have broken about half way out of the buds. When they are in full bloom take them out of water and keep them in a dry place. They will keep for years. Perhaps there are spring bulbs blooming in your April garden. Get out your camera and take some pictures! Do some close-up shots. I think that close-up pictures make us really look at plants in greater detail. Pictures provide us with a tangible record of our garden successes and our need to improve our gardens. Look for bare areas where bulbs did not emerge. Mark these areas or make notes for future reference so you know where to replant in the autumn. Perhaps you received an Easter lily, the one with the white trumpet shaped flower. Hopefully you don’t want to throw it out (Gardeners don’t throw much out!) Understand that your plant was forced into bloom just for Easter. It usually won’t rebloom again during the same year. Remove the flowers as they finish blooming. Keep the plant in a sunny location. Sometimes the leaves will yellow. This is a signal that the plant is going into a rest. Cut back the watering. After the last frost plant the lily outside in rich garden soil (mixed with compost). Spread out the roots. Thoroughly water. The plant usually uses this first season in the garden to establish itself. In the summer of the following year it should rebloom. What a thrill! back to top back to table of contents Current Issue | About Forever Young | Where to Find | Advertise | Our Advertisers | Community Calendar | Contest | Clubs | Contact Us | Archives | Home |
