Notes from the Garden During the Pandemic

It’s been quite a spring – and I’m not even talking about the scariness that is COVID-19, quarantines, and work from home (“work” is laced with irony – with schools and daycares closed, working full-time, or even part-time, has become impossible). No, it’s been a spring full of color and beauty. I haven’t seen daffodils and jonquils blooming this late for around a decade. Though we had some warm days in March, a sustained coolness then set in, and I think this temperate weather pattern allowed the narcissus to flourish – at a time when I – and many other people – desperately need the hopefulness and joy that the natural world can provide.

Pheasant’s Eye, an heirloom narcissus, heading up a hillside.

I count myself extraordinarily fortunate to be living on a farm at this time – and although I don’t know if my career will ever heal from this unexpected fissure and stint as a stay-at-home mom – I am able to put many more hours into the garden.

The porch beds aren’t popping with color yet, but they are lush with different textures, and promise an interesting summer display!

Sadly, many of those hours are spent dealing with mulch, as I have been laying down newspaper and cardboard and covering it with mulch to create a new bed – a project undertaken largely because I couldn’t stand watching the weeds overtake my spent daffodils. Since you can’t mow the foliage down for so long, I decided to get rid of the grass!

I’ve almost emptied out the barn loft and attic of cardboard boxes…

Another late bloomer, but I can’t remember its name.

Since my first installed beds are now two years old, I’ve clamped down on any sentiment, and have become quite ruthless at ripping out plants that are behaving like thugs, are or too leggy, or simply don’t fit in their space.

As much as I’ve enjoyed the daffodils in their natural environment, it’s been wonderful to be able to have vases of them in the house for the past two months.

Of course, I don’t get rid of these plants – I simply move them to a “holding bed” that is planted in a most haphazard fashion. (That’s putting it kindly, I think. It looks like a very confused plot of land right now, with pots full of seedlings and “extra”plants stuck wherever my shovel landed first.

The peonies are heavy with buds.

My lilac is also celebrating its two year anniversary – and celebration ensued when it rewarded me with its first ever bloom!

I hope to plant many more lilacs in the years to come, so the air will be saturated with lilac blooms in spring.

After much worry over clematis wilt last year, I aggressively cut all of my older varieties back. So far, everything is looking fine. A new clematis, Vancouver Fragrant Star, is now blooming. (It doesn’t seem to be that fragrant unless you are right on top of it.)

Clematis Vancouver Fragrant Star.

I planted two forsythias, bringing my total to three (I lost two last year from prolonged wet weather) and set out a white dogwood tree a few weeks ago.

Siberian Iris, daylilies, allium, and some Dusty Miller (I’ve been ripping it out too…and I don’t save it).

Now I long for the capricious Kentucky weather to settle down and stop having frosts – I need to get my tomatoes in the ground! Until Mother Nature decides to go along with my plans, however, I will enjoy every minute I get to spend in my garden. And I hope these photographs bring you a little bit of the peace the real thing gives me.

The spring beauties have really outdone themselves this year.