Bleeding Heart

A perennial that's been unloved for a few seasons, it dies back in the summer and reemerges every spring.

Spinach Sprouts in Six Days; Spinach Day 6 (or 1?) (GDD 70)

Perhaps a bit late in the planting to planted, a stretch of warm weather ensured quick germination. We'll see how they do as the heat builds through the month of May.

Peas, Day 35 (GDD 70)

Lettuce, Day 15 (GDD 70)

Mesclun mix, red sails and buttercrunch, enclosed by loving chicken wire.

Forsythia Blossoms

Forsythia, originally uploaded by tpl108.

Protecting Vegetables from Frost

It's been spring for a little while, but it's cold as the dickens out there. Many vegetables, even the frost-hardy ones, can wither if it gets too chilly. An easy, if not exceedingly attractive, way to protect tender plants is by putting old Kahlua bottles, milk cartons, or even cardboard boxes over the top. From experience, I sleep better in cardboard than surrounded by Kahlua (though I do like Kahlua-soaked dreams) and I trust my plants feel the same. Seriously, corrugated cardboard works quite well. According to the experts, it's best to put your covers on before it get too cold and try to water your garden before doing so -- the extra water will prop up the temperature a bit.

Good list of the various frost tolerances for plants here.

Lettuce Planted (GDD 29)

Around these parts warm weather means shotgunning Miller High Life, moving my weight bench to the front yard, and planting frost-hardy leafy vegetables. Buttercrunch, mesclun, and red sails, one of last year's better performers were planted today.

Rhododenron Leaves & Flower Buds

Rhododenron Leaves & Flower Buds, originally uploaded by tpl108.

Daffodils Bloom (GDD 20)

Daffodil, originally uploaded by tpl108.

The first bloom came about a month after they peeked through the soil and about a week-and-a-half ahead of last year.

Super Snap Peas Sprout in 17 Days (GDD 12)

Pea Sprouts, originally uploaded by tpl108.

Planted on Easter Sunday, the first super sugar snap peas sprouted today. 17 days after planting, peas shoots emerged, which is on par with fellow Massachusetts gardener, Skippy's Vegetable Garden. Peas can be planted, as the expression goes, as soon as the soil can be worked. That's a bit imprecise, but mid-to-late March for Southern New England seems practical. Even though they can be planted early, early sowing is traded for long germination times. This chart illustrates the principle well.

Springtime on the Grange; Peony, Hydrangea, Azalea Break Dormancy (GDD 12)

(top: crocuses; bottom, clockwise: azalea buds, hydrangea leaf, rhododendron leaf bud, peony eyes emerge)

For the past week, spring peepers have provided the season's soundtrack from the pond a few hundred feet from the grange. Spring is in the ear, if not in the air.

The season's first peony eyes were spotted this morning. Purchased from Wal-Mart for a few bucks, Paeonia lactiflora "Bowl of Beauty" was planted in May 2007 after languishing for months in my basement before being rediscovered and planted. An instant malingerer, it never grew more than a few inches tall despite constant prodding, good schools, and the best private tutors. This year, it has put its humble beginnings behind it and has emerged far ahead of its more established counterpart in the other bed, "Sara Bernhardt," which didn't emerge until April 20 last year.

The bigleaf hydrangea macrophyllas, both the "bailmer" remontant and traditional varieties, have broken their winter dormancy. My traditional hydrangea - the kind that blooms on old wood - did not set any flowers last year and only 1 or 2 in 2006, whereas the remonant variety, which blooms on new wood put on a show all summer. This past winter wasn't quite as cold as last year's, allowing the traditional hydrangea to emerge a week sooner this year, so there might be hope for a least a few flowers.

In other corners of the garden, the Cornell Pink azalea (rhododendron mucronulatum) has started to leaf out. Crocuses continue to delight.

Useful Link: Growing Degree Day Maps

Faithful readers of this blog, all five of you including two inmates in a Hungarian penitentiary, know that I'm about as big into phenology as one could be. See?

Plants grow best at temperatures above 50 degrees. So, instead of looking at the calendar to see where your plants should be, it's better to see how often it's been above 50 degrees. Enter: the growing degree day, a rough calculation of how much the weather has been above 50. It's a useful indicator for gardeners because plants bloom, insects emerge, and celebrities wither at set phenological times. For instance, dandelions first flower at about 50 growing degree days, lilacs at about 238. (Kiddos - enter your phenological data here. Don't mention it to your friends. You'll surely remain dateless at prom if you do.)

Starting last year, all updates on this here "world wide web log" were keyed to GDDs, setting up comparisons (and fodder) for this year's posts.

The link below generates maps GDD across the county, allowing New Englanders to obtain a graphical representation of some of their poorer horticultural decisions as they covet gardens of warmer climes. GDD Maps.

Sources: U. Mass., U. Wisc. Penn St., Project Bud Burst