Garden Updates (May 7, 2020)

This spring has been unseasonably cold here in the Northeast and there have been maybe 8 or 9 days in the last two months where it was nice enough to do some work in the garden. I try to get as much done whenever I can. Still, I can’t help feeling that I’m way behind with weeding and other maintenance tasks, and I worry about transplanting my seedlings this Sunday (Mother’s Day). Today was a lovely day but tomorrow night we’re expecting the temperature to dip dramatically due to a polar vortex! I hope the rest of May is not so bizarre.

Today I did a little weeding here and there and checked on a few things, but overall, I sat in the sun and relaxed. These are some pictures from my garden today:

I’ve been hardening off my plants for the past few days on an old Ikea rack that I haul in and out each day along with the plants. I haven’t had the nerve to leave the plants out overnight because night-time temperatures have still been dipping into the 40s and I also worry that the raccoons will knock the rack over trying to investigate. I have watched them on the security camera hang onto the porch railings like acrobatic strippers in the middle of the night, so they would be all over that seedling rack. I did put a tomato seedling in a pot on the porch and covered it with a plastic cover to see if it would survive. I didn’t know a polar vortex was on the way.

Plants in the native pollinator garden are starting to flower. The phlox has been in bloom since mid April, and the red columbine patch and chives plants are starting to pop open. The little white flowers in the pictures are non-native Star of Bethlehem, a demonic little weed that I have given up on. A few years ago, I spent a whole month digging up Star of Bethlehem bulbs and they still managed to survive and multiply! The dwarf apple tree in the front garden is in bloom but there don’t seem to be many pollinators around.

Garden Maintenance:

• I’ve been pulling lots of mugwort and plantain in important areas, such as areas where I expect lots of milkweed and butterfly weed.
• I’ve been pulling crab grass and weeding around my perennials.
• I’ve been keeping tabs on the the most problematic area of my property: the side of my house that faces the neighbor. This area usually becomes overgrown with common milkweed and other plants, which are mostly invasive weeds. Last month, my father-in-law helped me remove several small tree-of-heavens and lots of oriental bittersweet. Yesterday, I removed a bunch of poison ivy that had spread up the side of my house. I saw some pokeweed and milkweed sprouts back there, which made me smile.
• Last month, I also cut down a mulberry tree that is growing in the wrong place: right against my neighbor’s fence. I’ve cut this tree down several times and every year it regrows. This year, I ziptied a doubled layer of contractor bag onto the stump and I’m hoping that will kill it or severely restrict its growth.

Animal Observations:

• I haven’t seen many bees or butterflies. There’s literally one big bumblebee that is always patrolling the garden and that’s it. What is going on?

• I saw a Starling fly over to a patch of purple dead nettle in the hellstrip, clip a flower off at the stem and fly away with it.

• I saw a Cardinal eating off of a chickweed plant- probably the tiny seeds. I didn’t know they liked chickweed.

• A few days ago, I watched a crazy squirrel hang upside down on top of the bird feeder. He held his little paws on the perches as he tried to poke his head into the feeder holes. He fell off.