Rain, rain come my way

April, the time for showers, has been dryer than my skin in the month of February. That’s pretty darn dry! I have already been out watering the redbud and viburnum I planted last summer. Not sure if I will get these little guys to survive. I am ready for a good three days of showers, but would be happy with just one if I could get it. Fortunately I do amend my soil with compost and after 10 years of adding this good stuff at least I wasn’t hitting concrete when I divided some perennials the other day. The hint here is that compost will help your soil retain some moisture and keep it from turning into hard rock. Another good hint I picked up in a gardening magazine is to keep buckets, or some other type of container at various places in the garden for throwing those weeds into when I am walking through the garden. It's hard for me not to pick them, how weird is that. This is something I have just started doing and I like this hint just fine.



The white trillium I got on sale at Abele’s last May is in bloom! I was so excited to see it out there; nothing ate it, it survived the winter and is making do with this dry spell. The one I planted up north several years ago I have never seen. I think the deer get to it before I do.

Yesterday I picked 5 spears of asparagus and had one of my favorite dinners—just plain asparagus with a dab of butter. Was it ever good! And there is more where that came from. I will probably be eating it for the next two weeks at least. I just love getting my supper from the garden. No shopping for me! Avoiding the grocery store can be habit forming. Unfortunately the cat doesn’t care for asparagus so I do still need to get there on occasion.




I have started potting up the tomatoes in separate pots, and will be doing the same for the peppers soon. My potato seeds have arrived from the Seed Savers Exchange and I expect the onion sets any day now. Time to get some lettuce and radish seeds in the ground. I started the peas in containers since they don’t like cold soil even though they prefer the cold weather. I am hoping for some rain so I don’t have to keep watering some of the plants I potted up. There is enough watering indoors to do at this time.

I can’t complain about not having rain on Saturday though. The Master Gardeners were at the Andersen Rose Center uncovering the roses that day and rain is heck to work in—I know since I have done this job in the rain before. We did see a snowflake or two, but that didn’t stop us from getting most of the leaves out of the beds. The pruning will come later.



And I guess that’s the word from Saginaw, Michigan during this dry April season. Perhaps the next time I write I will be able to report some foul weather of the wet variety. That’s what I’m hoping for anyways.