A Stroll In The Wild Cultivated Gardens

I started my day with the first planting and sowing in the roadside vegetable garden. Two rows of potatoes were planted, yellow and red. My soil gets fluffier and fluffier every year. Seven years of wood chip mulch decomposing on top and now additions of great dollops of dung do wonders. The shallow rock filled soil with a hardpan below is nearly no more.

I sowed spinach, three kind lettuce, carrots, parsnips, beets and sugar snap peas. A bunch of Gloriosa Daisy and Black-Eyed Susan were transplanted out of the garden and into the wild flower strip along the rickety split rail fence. Rain is scheduled for tomorrow night and Monday.

The best news is there has been ample opportunity and conditions for any weed seed in the manure to germinate and I am seeing nothing so far. I hope it stays that way.

After a few more chores it was time to amble through the wild cultivated gardens to see what else was waking up and enjoy all the blooms.

Many of our weeds bloom and they bloom in abundant profusion. That characteristic moves them out of the weed category and into the wild flower category. We let them be.

Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica is a petite little plant. It is not petite in numbers.

There are daffodils of course, new varieties opening daily.

Three of my botanical garden plant sale trilliums have awaken so far. I haven't seen the local wild trilliums yet.

The mass of Anemone blanda grows fuller by the day.

The wild Anemone acutiloba does not shrink in comparison. Down in the forest it covers up to half an acre.

The flower is a bit smaller, but in the dappled light of the forest, the pure white stands out.

I found the first Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis. Hundreds more will follow in the coming weeks.

Species tulips from last fall's bulb purchase evaded the varmints to put on a nice display. There are a few poisonous to varmints daffodils planted among them.

There are other kind daffodils of course.

The catalog bought pink Trout Lily is having a good year. There is a yellow catalog bought one also. Both of them seem to multiply generously but they have been fighting off something that likes to chew on them. I think the yellow one moved two feet from the original planting site to try to get away.

There are a whole lot of daffodils of course. I expect they will be peaking in volume of bloom by next weekend.

Daffodils from stem to stern and top to bottom.

These are the store bought trilliums I really want, a bright yellow and a deep red with mottled leaves. Multiplication has been slow going for them. I'd be happy to buy some, but trilliums just are not something you see in nurseries very often.

The nine species of trillium I have gathered into the garden becoming will do for now, until I find a source for more.

That is a good sample of what is blooming in the wild cultivated gardens in early April. There is more of course. Much more.