A good year?
I’ve been congratulating myself on my gardening success this spring – my lilac was loaded with scented purple plumes, the struggling azalea is clothed in scarlet flowers, my non-performing smoke tree has the beginnings of frothy buds that I hope will soon be ’smoke’ and most exciting of all, my peonies, normally putting forth from zero to one or two blooms per plant, are covered with round buds about to burst. My kindly neighbor, a landscaper, once shared with me some advice he had received when starting out in the business, “It’s not rocket science,” he was told, “when laying sod, just make sure to put the green side up.” So, rather than hoping for dramatic success and magazine-perfect beds, I’ve been trying to follow this common-sense approach and take small steps to improve my yard – put lime on the lilacs in the fall, feed everything early in the spring, fertilize the lawn at regular intervals, and I’ve been thinking that that guy was right. You just have to do what needs to be done; when it needs to be done. However, my bubble was burst when talking to a friend who claimed that her peonies were also doing better than ever; maybe it’s not me, but some combination of forces – rain, sun, the fates – that has given my yard a boost this year. Anyone else having unusual success in the garden?