News / Clark County News

Garden Life: Catching spring fever can feel pretty good

By Robb Rosser

Published: March 5, 2015, 12:00am

Robb Rosser In the past March has been a mix of sun, rain, warmth, cold and an abundance of early-blooming perennials.

In my youth, all references to spring fever seemed to hint at love. Nowadays, I can’t seem to get my mind out of the garden. In many ways the feeling is still the same: It’ a bit edgy; a kind of restlessness. This feeling is commonly associated with the onset of spring. We want something to happen but we’re not quite ready for the heady pace of events once we venture into the garden.

If it were a hot afternoon in late summer and the lawn had just been mowed, we could take care of these feelings with a book of poetry or a short nap in the hammock. But it’s March and the garden is begging for us to get to work. That is the problem at this time of year; getting started and sticking with it. We don’t just wake up on the first day of spring and pick up where we left off last fall.

I find that imagining the garden through the eyes of a garden visitor to be helpful at this time of year. Think of seeing your garden from the perspective of a visitor coming up the driveway, parking, getting out of the car and coming to your front door. Your list of things to do can begin with spring cleaning the front porch. Sweep it down and make sure any pots or planters give the first impression you would like them to give. It’s all about new growth, fresh seasonal color and not what’s left over from fall and winter.

By the time we do warm up to spring the “to do” list is growing as fast as the dandelions in our lawns. The ardent gardener decides to plant a petunia and ends up on hands and knees for three hours, pulling weeds. Once again, we stumble into the garden and the garden shows us what needs to be done. Carry pruners with you and when you see a shrub with dead twigs and branches, get in there and prune them back to good wood. If a vine is taking off, get out the twine and give it the direction and support it needs to reach a destination that you and the vine can agree upon.

While you are doing these odds and ends, you will be getting a good overview of your garden and come to see what else needs to be done. If you’re doing a kitchen garden this year begin by applying composted manure to all your vegetable beds. Plant out vegetable seedlings and plant seeds of early beans or sugar snap peas. In the flower garden you can put out herbaceous perennials and fertilize beds and borders. Plant any summer-blooming bulbs you have already purchased and cut back all ornamental grasses before the new growth gets underway.

As existing perennials emerge, fill in large gaps with complementary colored annuals. Create a mood with this year’s color scheme. Take a chance. Go for a different combination of colors that you have always wanted to try. Combine pinks and blues with a hint of cool, mellow yellow, or mix hot reds with confident yellows and oranges that shout, “Look at me!” Warming weather has forced winter annual weeds into full growth. The shepherd’s purse is on the verge of flowering and the Persian speedwell is spreading daily. Weed now to prevent seed set and further spread this summer.

Spring fever has its ups and downs, it comes and goes. It’s as if our days were choreographed to the tempo of our variable Northwest weather. Although this year’s winter weather has been glorious, I can’t bring myself to say that winter has come and gone. It’s our custom to believe we have seen the end of winter just about the time March throws her first tantrum.

Still, there will be a morning when you will find yourself out in the garden, puttering around with some project that catches your attention. Get your fingers dirty and the knees of your pants muddy. You will smile to yourself when you recognize the familiar droning buzz of bumblebees returning to the garden.

The flowering cherry trees bloom in shell pinks and clear whites. The next time you feel stuck in a rut with spring fever, try this. Plant two aspidistras, give them plenty of water and call (or email) me in the summer. Maybe all the encouragement any of us needs is to let the garden take us back into its warm, spring embrace.

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