May the 4th Be With You

Moving into May is always somewhat of a relief to me. It’s the time of year that you know for sure that It’s time to find those heat tolerant plants for your yard, especially those that you change out annually. March is always crazy with the temperatures going way up and way down, but mostly just enough to tempt you into your garden. April never seems stable as far as temperatures and rainfall to me. As most Aprils go we had some temperatures in the low 40s at night and we have seen 90°. The soil never really got a chance to warm up like it should. When the soil is not warm, the roots of some of these summer annuals are not happy. I always think to myself that it’s safe enough to replace the plants in your pots around your home because you have a little more control of the water amount that goes to those roots even if it’s a rainy spring at least you know in a pot it’s going to drain well.

This year I was forced into an experiment that I really had always wanted to do. With our house being on the MRA garden tour earlier this May. We decided to have plants that were fully mature and blooming at their very peak for that weekend. I planted our vegetable garden with winter annuals back in October. Of course the main star of the show were Fox gloves, the snap dragons had some pedals left on them, the poppies were absolutely perfect, the Delphinium were at their peak. Mimi and I knew that we were risking a lot when we made this decision, but we were determined to make it work. We used winter annuals throughout the yard on both sides of the pond and spotted around the garden just in case we were right. The plan for just in in case we were wrong was backing them up with summer annual such as White Vinca, petunias, Biden, Gomphrena and Bright, Orange Sun, patients and Geraniums.

We knew those plants would be there for us in May if we waited for the exact right date to plant them in the cold, wet ground. The worst case scenario would be that the winter annuals would have played all the way out, we would have just pulled them up because we planted something similar in their shape nearby them that would’ve been sitting there waiting if that’s what we had to do. For my fox gloves, I backed them up with campanula, Canterbury tales. I used that plant because it spikes up similar to a fox glove with the same tall elliptical blooms, but with very different effect and shape. The campanula was a new one for me. It was one of those great pictures in a seed catalog that captivated me back in the summer last year. I got the seeds in and sprouted and moved them up to 4 inch pots all along thinking they were kind of just a ho hum looking plant. I also experimented with Mullen for the same spiky effect but with yellow. Mine are just cracking open now.

Every day after work for the last three weeks, Mimi and I would grab our snipers and move around the yard snipping dead heads off of snap dragons and fox gloves and poppies and wallflowers and even pansies to see if we could pull it off. The roses were cut back at the correct time but they got that cold blast earlier. That new growth burn acted like a pruning and set them back to miraculously be in full bloom for that very weekend, whew. The Drifts and the Knockouts were there for us, now I love them even more. My pride and joy of the weekend is my two year old Rose Campion decided to bloom its Garnet red for that weekend, that’s a good one. We had 4 obelisks filled with sweet peas planted last fall that were singing loudly that weekend. I have always thought that it’s the weirdest thing that when it’s time to pull annual plants up so we can plant our summer annuals they look the best they’ve ever looked since we planted them. Pansies and snap dragons never look as good as they do when it’s time to pull them up in the spring. It’s our own fault, we can’t help ourselves in the spring time and we get the feeling that there won’t be anything left at the garden centers if we don’t hurry up and get it done. I think it’s a habit that we’ve gotten into. I believe after this experiment, I will hang onto my things that are left over from the winter as long as I can and not be tempted to pull things up too early. I sound like a kid promising to clean up after a puppy if somebody will just get me one.

We knew there were going be a lot of people coming to see our yard and we wanted them to see our yard with well established plants. Some of the new beds that we created just for the spring were planted with spring annuals, but we’re backed up by Mullen and snapdragons and campanula so it had an established feel about it. A few days before the tour is when we got all that rain. The morning of the tour on Saturday it was still raining until just a little bit before it was time for people to come over. We had just enough time to get everything ready for from what I heard, over 1000 people coming to see what we do for fun. The vibe that weekend in our yard was so positive and fun because the temperatures were mild and all the rain stopped just in time people, were walking around smiling and talking to each other and just having a great time. It really was one of the easiest and fun parties we’ve had in our backyard since all Mimi and I had to do is walk around and talk to people whose faces we recognize from being customers at Garden Works and just fellow gardeners that we know.

We were so happy to host such a fun group on such a beautiful day. Mainly, we felt a lot of relief that keeping steady on our plants with the deadhead and backing them up just in case we had a no lose situation and our work paid off. We also felt a lot of relief when the last person left on Sunday after sweating the weather and the bloom dates for a year. We looked at each other at that moment and said “May the 4th be with you.” The next day would be May the 4th and we had decided to take the whole day off to sit in our garden and goof off and discuss the weekend. We think this coming fall we will transform our vegetable garden into a flower garden again, but maybe stick to three or four of our favorite plants instead of going crazy like I did this year just to show off for everybody.

Mimi and I provided a list of the plants that we use in this garden listed by category. If you didn’t get one that weekend we can e-mail you one if you will let us know. Just e-mail us at martinsonsms@gmail.com that you would like one and we will send it to you. Next week when the last Foxglove gives up its last bloom, I will pull those up and replace them with tomatoes and peppers and eggplant and okra that I have growing in large pots, so I have not lost any time. The rest of the yard is ready to roll. Remember this weekend is Mother’s Day weekend and don’t forget your mom and your children’s mom. A gift certificate at a garden center can really warm a mom‘s heart and it’s a fun place to be on the Mother’s Day weekend when the nurseries are ginning this time of year because it is truly time now to get your plan together and get those plants in the ground before we get too hot.