Fertilizing

Plants need food just like people do.  I fertilize all my plantings in the early spring.  If I do it in the fall, I figure alot of the fertilizer, which I broadcast, will just run off.  I attempt-- to spread it before alot of plants have come out of the ground- and I use organic fertilizer which doesn't burn so much as chemical fertilizer and allows me to consider that all the juice and jam that I make from my berries is "organic".  I used 30 50 lb. bags of  North Country Oraganic's fertilizer- mostly "Cheep-Cheep"which is mostly poultry manure.  Naturally the day I pick to broadcast it out of buckets was very cold ( Ididn't sink into the soft ground) and very windy but it's now mostly done -except where I decided to wait untill daffodils come up in a field so I can see where they are.

Spring Pruning

I now have most of my spring pruning done at 1030 Urquhart Rd.  I pruned and retied-up my grapevines yesterday.  I cut paths in the blackberry patch although I still want to go through and cut out the rest of the dead canes from last year.  I cut down the red twig willows and red twig dogwood so they will sucker back up with lots of bright shoots for nest winter.  I cut down my enormous pair of orintal bittersweet because the on on the right died and the one on the lest was slipping off the roof.  They also are invasive and seedings are coming up- but they sure are pretty.  I cut down another alien invasive: my huge Japenese barberry.  It's prickly and progeny have been popping up here and there.  It does have red berries that stay red all winter which I like but it's done at my house.  I still like the Berberis species: koreana ( which suckers but I've never had seedlings), and vulgaris which has beautiful flowers and  a gracefull shape (seedlings come up).  My pears and apples are pruned for the season as are my raspberries.  I may do a little more work on my currants and gooseberries.

The snow drops were at their peak this last weekend and the early snow crocus are blooming.

Spring Wildflowers

I noticed today at the nursery that we sell almost all my favorite wildflowers.  We have quite a good selection of "Spring Emphemerals" @ $6.95-$8.95.We have both kinds of spring beauties--Claytonia caroliniana and virginica.  We have 4 species of Trillium: our native common T. erectum (red Trillium) , the showier T. grandiflorum (my personal favorite), and T. recurvatum and cuneatum.  We have the native bellwort: Uvularia sessilifolia and I belive we still have U. grandiflorum.  We have bloodroot--Sanguniaria canadensis (and the double from!).  We have lots of Hepatica acutiloba which is already starting to bloom in our greenhouse.  We have the native Soloman's Seal, Polygonatum biflorum, as well as 2 giant ones: P. commutatum and P. multiflorum 'Giganteum', not to mention variegated  and the miniature ground cover, P. humile.  We just potted (this week) some beautiful wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis).  Our Dodecatheon meadia (shooting star) is coming up  as is out Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells).  We have quite alot of wild geraniums (and some cultivated varieties of Geranium maculatum) and good numbers of mayapples (Podophyllum petatum).  I noticed the bunchberry :Cornus canadensis in the greenhouse and I believe we have plenty of Heuchera and Tiarella when we uncover it.  Hopefully we have plenty of false Soloman's seal- if not, I can bring some in.  We have nice looking Jeffersonia which I have not ever seen in the wild.  We also have our native Pachysandra procumbens - native to the Southern mountains, that is.  We have regular Iris cristata and 'Alba'.  That seems like alot of wildflowers to me- I love them all

Pruning

We sponsered a very well attended lecture by Lee Reich entitled "Fearless Pruning".  I already had 2 of his books and bought another.   We all found him a delightful, charming,  funny speaker.  He presented a solid introduction to pruning- if anyone wants to learn more, contact me and I'll let you help prune at my house (or stop by the nursery).  After making sure things went well at the talk Saturday, which happened
without me doing anything,  I showed my daughter, Kady, and her boyfriend my method of pruning and they helped me for most of Sunday afternoon.

Lee Reich is addicted to black currants (my favorite fruit).   He is possitive about seaberries (Hippophae) and negative about Aronia, two fruit I am trying to grow and harvest but don't know that much about the fruit yet.   I haven't had enough Aronia to cook into juice and my male seaberry is not doing it yet so I haven't had pollination let alone usable fruit.

Back to Work!

This was my first day this "Spring" back at the nursery- the snow drops here are out of the ground with visable swollen buds just about to bend down and unfurl.  Also, re-wing blackbirds are back and singing.

At the farm we have long since tapped all 4000 plus sugar maples and this weekend had some good runs.  Harold Carleton (of Maple Grove Farm, West Newbury, where I live) made 62 gallons of syrup Saturday and 50 some gallons yesterday.  I don't know how the sap has run today but even if it didn't we have sap to boil.  I'll miss the cows and the woods where I spend alot of time in the winter but the season has progressed.

Last week, my wife Dana and I went to Pennsylvania to visit relatives and friends.  The snow drops were blooming there as were winter aconites, snow crocus, and various witch hazels.  The only horticultural excursion we made was to Longwood Gardens which has one of the largest conservatories in the country.  I'm hoping to put my photos on face book (the nursery's facebook page) tomorrow.

Flowers blooming in Northampton, Mass

My winter vacation just started- this morning was the last day shoveling manure for almost a week and after our trip to the Philadelphia vicinity, I will call my boss and maybe start soon after.  In any case, at the Smith College campus Hamemelis are blooming as is Chimonanthus praecox and both are quite fragrant.  In the herbaceous perennial department, Galanthus (snow drops), early snow Crocus, Eranthus (winter aconite), and Adonis are all in bloom and some daffodils are showing buds.  Back in Vermont, we have a foot of snow but I believe it got above freezing so maybe maple sap ran.  I hope so, we tapped 4000 trees.

Spring is (almost) here

Three weeks ago Johnny-jump-ups were still blooming from last fall, snowdrops were coming up and Helleborus niger was in bloom but the blossoms were still bent down and not yet all the way expanded.  Since then we've had more -20F temperatures with no snow cover and more snow and ice. I don't know what things are like under the snow.

The reason it feels like spring is that we have done the bulk of the tapping of the sugar bush at Maple Grove Farm (where I live), boiled a little and are waiting for sap to flow.  Once we do the tapping it feels like spring no matter how cold it still is.