Observations of a Middle Tennessee Gardener: Spring

By March 21st, the official first day of spring we already have had flowers blooming for several weeks and we've gotten passed our feelings being deprived that a lack of color that winter always seems to bring. We aren't into serious weed pulling yet, because at this stage you can't always tell the weeds from the flowers. This fact alone would make this time of year my favorite in the garden. What more can you ask more - beautiful colors and no weeds to pull?

Beautiful tulips, hyacinths, daffodils or as some Tennesseans call them buttercups, the pansies from the winter are looking good, blooming forsythia bushes and flowering red bud trees are everywhere. About the time I get used to seeing color again and start taking it for granted it's time to start pulling weeds. I'm usually caught off guard when toward the end of March or the beginning of April when I look across the yard and realize that all that is green is not pretty flowers.

It is a delicate balance, if I take too long to realize when it's time to weed those pesky things they will take over. Then I spend the next couple of weeks and possible the next month feeling like I'm always behind; which diminishes my pleasure in my gardens a little bit. By April the gardens are in full bloom, the daffodils are nearly gone, but the tulips are still beautiful and we have many other things blooming: bachelor buttons, azalea bushes, dogwood trees, irises, poppies, pincushions, money plant and a few other nameless flowers. Country folks around here call irises, flags. I don't know why they call them flags; but if somebody from Tennessee starts talking to you about all the beautiful flags growing in their yard, don't get vision of a row of American flags gently waving in the breeze.

When buds appear on crape myrtles that is when my mama says it's time to plant seeds, both vegetables and flowers. A lot of Tennesseans plant their vegetable garden on Good Friday, no matter where it falls on the calendar. They believe that by planting on Good Friday that they will be guaranteed to have a garden overflowing with vegetables. Personally, I believe my mother's system is much more reliable indicator of the right time to plant.

By May, our yard smells like a sweet smelling perfume factory because of all the roses and irises blooming. The tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils are gone, but it seems like everyday, something new is blooming. Those gorgeous magnolia trees are blooming all around town and in our yard our Japanese Magnolia is bursting with flowers. We also have daisies, Dutch irises, wallflowers, gerber daisies and sweet Williams are everywhere. For most of April and May we get to turn off our heat and air unit and open our windows and use our screens. It feels wonderful to have a fresh breeze coming through the house instead of canned air. By mid-May the daylilies and Asiatic lilies are blooming and this year we had a new kind of lily blooming, that we got off a clearance rack, but neither of us know what it is. In the middle of May is when we start getting cucumbers from our yard. Yum! The tomatoes are just yellow flowers and green nubs.

June always sneaks up on me too. I'm just getting used to the beautiful May weather, it's usually in the 80's and most days there is a breeze. That is perfect weather as far as I'm concerned. Then by the second week I usually ask mama "Isn't it unusually hot for this time of year?" She always looks at me like I lost my good sense and reminds me "It's June, it is supposed to be hot." Oh yeah, June is 90 degree weather most of the time. The windows are shut and we are back on canned air. We can only work in the garden in the mornings or early evening because of the heat.

Sunflowers, black-eyed Susans start appearing in early June, but the poppies and most of the bachelor buttons have had enough and have quit blooming,
which makes it time to gather the seeds. Before I can get all the seeds from the poppies and bachelor buttons, the seeds from sweet Williams and money plant are ready to be gathered. By the time I have spent a couple of weekends gathering seeds, I'm already wondering "Why am I doing this?"