Waiting for spring

The garden is quiet. Most of the flowering trees are bare except for the amelia and honeysuckle. It has been exceptionally cold and snowy this winter and I long for spring's warmth and colours. 

Sock Foon

15 Feb 2022

Sometimes you win one ...

The doctor said I should be kind to my joints, so no more digging in the garden.  Container gardening allows me to continue pottering in my yard. So off to Lowe's I went to  shop for pots and vegetable plants. I bought two medium-sized pots and two young bush tomatoes (meant for patios).  

Update

Started writing this in 2013 and finishing it up in 2020. LOL.

I believed the tomato plants did well and I had a decent harvest.  Hence the title of this post. The pots are still around and I  have plans to put them to good use.

My love affair with jasmines

The intense fragrance of the Jasmine Sambac is intoxicating. I kept a quart-sized pot indoor because of the Maryland winter. Unfortunately, the indoor environment was not to its liking and it died. Undeterred, I bought another pot because its fragrance had so enchanted me. Despite my care, it also died. Lesson learned: no more Jasmine Sambac for me

Meanwhile, I had planted a White Jasmine. It flourished and, in time, got out of control extending into my lily patch. A hard prune solved the problem.

Update: September 30, 2020

In an effort to downsize my garden and make it more manageable, I removed the White Jasmine several years ago. 

My young Japanese dogwood died

I had always wanted a white dogwood, but the nearby nurseries seem to carry only pricey young trees. So, last year (2012), I was really thrilled to find a young Japanese dogwood sapling (cornus kousa or benthamidia kousa) in a supermarket at a very reasonable price. Joy oh joy! But within a year, my beloved sapling died. 

Why did it die? I took such care with it. Not trusting myself, I had asked J to put it in the ground for me. He did a good job. I watered and fed it regularly and it responded to my care. I was hopeful that this healthy sapling would, in a couple of years, grow to be a young tree. Come winter, the leaves turned brown and dropped, as expected. Soon spring arrived. The sapling had a difficult time putting out leaves. It was almost June when I saw the first few leaves. Soon, more leaves sprouted, but they were tiny and stayed that way. I had bad feelings. Mid-summer was unusually hot and dry. The leave burnt to a crisp and the skinny branches slowly died.


Perhaps, it was too young to be put in the ground. Maybe I should have planted it in an appropriate size pot for a year or two before putting in the ground. Perhaps it was planted in a wrong spot. I don't know Sigh.   

But, if I have a chance to buy another sapling, whether a Japanese dogwood or North American dogwood, I would do so. And keep it in a nice size pot for a while.  

Cornus kousa / kousa dogwood (Photo credit: dietmut)

In the midst of Gray Winter's Cold ...Flowers!

It happens every year. Toward the end of January, I would spy in the patch of ground beneath two towering white pines, tiny white-tipped green shoots. Feeling a surge of happiness, I would cry excitedly to my husband, “I see the snowdrops! Spring is here!" He would look up from whatever he is doing and  smile. Spring, of course, is still several weeks away. No matter, the sight of them would make my heart sing. They signal my magic garden's awakening.

The snow drops would grow taller by the day as they inched their way through cold ground. Soon, I would be able to make out tightly-wrapped white buds. In full bloom, each plant is about three to four inches high and bears a small white flower flanked by a pair of narrow, light green leaves. Interestingly, the flowers droop, seemingly bowing to the ground. In a few winters, the snow drops actually bloomed amidst snow. Thy are truly a beautiful sight to behold.  

Snowdrops blooming in snow
Photo: SockFoon

Now, that was January. About a week or so into February, I would detect a delicate fragrance coming from the honeysuckle tree. The flower buds that had been slowly swelling had burst into bloom. At first, the bare-leaved tree shows just a scattering of tiny white and pink flowers. Before I know it, hundreds of flowers would cover the entire tree. Throughout its brief flowering season, bees would buzz about, taking in the nectar. I dearly love this tree. The delicacy of the flowers, arresting fragrance, and brief season inspired these "haiku" lines, titled "Ephemeality."

   ephemerality

honeysuckles bloom

scenting the air with fragrance

petals fall softly

chew sock foon

22 march, 2000

A honeysuckle flower
Photo: SockFoon

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What the hornets did

This was still the season where flying creatures were in abundance to pollinate plants. As a result, my sickle pear tree bore an abundance of fruits. Just as they were ready for harvest, hornets visited my yard. They pierced a hole in each pear! I could not bring myself to pick them for my husband and me and the neighbors; who knows what the hornets left behind. Shaken by wind and scampering squirrels, the rudely injured pears fell and covered the ground. They rotted and the ground was coated with a sugary substance. In time, the rotting pears and sugary substance disappeared into earth, leaving hardly a trace. The following spring the grass beneath the pear tree was yellowish instead of the usual green. Strange, the hornets have not come again. Flying creatures were scarce last year and there were few pears.      

Image via Wikipedia

So I grew an avocado plant

My husband discovered that Aldi carried gaucomole, neatly packaged in plastic bags. They were delicious! In summer of 2010, I decided to prepare some myself. Well ... it didn't taste quite the same. Left holding the seed, I decided that it should not go to waste. There is a plant in there, and maybe, just maybe, lots of avocados! So I plopped the seed into a glass of water and waited. I had tried doing this a few times in my youth and had always failed. But hope springs eternal in the human breast.

Sure enough, a tiny plant sprouted. In time it was ready to be potted. Through  fall of 2010 and winter of 2011, it remained in a sunny corner of the dining room and sprouted leaves. This spring, I repotted it in a big pot and moved it to the deck. How it flourished, mulched in Chinese tea leaves left over from making kambucha. The lichee tea and green tea leaves must have agreed with it! The fairly large, soft leaves are a light green--the color of new leaves in spring. 

Should I leave it on the deck through the coming winter months or bring it indoor? Even though it's healthy, it doesn't look sturdy enough to endure the wind, snow, and cold. The avocado plant did, after all, originate in Mexico. So, it'll probably be brought indoors in a few weeks. I'll  have to find a spot for this lovely plant, as its original corner has been claimed by others ....   

Image via Wikipedia