We’ve reached that time of spring around here when we are not yet frost-free but a freeze could hurt a little bit. Especially if you are one of those gardeners who simply couldn’t wait to plant out annuals that don’t like frost and you didn’t have me whispering—shouting—in your ear that it is too early to plant out annuals and vegetable plants that don’t like frost or even temps in the 40s for that matter.
What about pansies? Pansies will be fine, as will violas and daffodils and other flowering bulbs.
You, the gardener, are going to be fine too as soon as you get a grip and remember a few little lessons that I’m going to illustrate with this diagram I made up.
Lesson number one is at the center. You, the gardener, can only do so much. You can spend time in your garden, hopefully making some good choices about what you do with that time. That’s it. Yes, there’s a lot you can’t control.
Which leads to lesson number two, the next circle in the diagram. You can make choices that will influence how well your garden does. You can choose to water and weed and hopefully you will make some good plant selections. One of the best choices you can make is to not plant too early in the spring.
Then you go to the outer ring and learn that Mother Nature is ultimately in charge. You really can’t do anything about the weather, including stopping spring frosts and freezes. You also can’t control much about how a plant grows or what the wildlife around the garden will do.
Once you learn these three lessons, you’ll no longer get upset and uptight about these frosts and freezes in late April. You’ll just think back to the chart above and remind yourself that there is only so much you are responsible for in your garden.
It’s Mother Nature who’s really in charge.
Now, go out there and have some fun!
I think every gardener should have your chart as a tattoo!
That would certainly save the springtime massacre of baby plants and a whole lot of agonising over things we can’t change.
Well, a tattoo might be a little extreme… how about on the face of a sundial set in the middle of the garden? Save the baby plants!
Love this chart!
Yup. 2-4″ of wet snow expected tomorrow. So the hyacinths will be bent over and the Grecian Windflowers smooshed. But I never put tender plants out until the end of May. In fact the dahlias and zinnias didn’t get planted until the first week of June last year.