Garden Guy column: Taking the bad with the good
I’ve recently written about some of the weather problems that we often deal with in spring gardening, and this also goes for other seasons. But we must take the bad with the good. This is a common expression that can apply to almost everything … everywhere.
We are blessed with early spring color right now. Not only do we have many colorful trees, but also spring bulbs as well as early spring shrubs, perennials, and biennials. Although we have had little moisture over the winter, there are still native plants blooming here and there where nature planted them. When we are not in drought and receive more winter moisture, we get more spring-time bloom, and we still have a chance for more this spring under the right conditions.
While my wife was still teaching, trips to the hill country during spring break in early spring showed me that we are generally more colorful. While we can’t grow bluebonnets and some of the other early wildflowers that they have, our four seasons allow us to have more spring-blooming ephemerals that give us color. For example, we currently have and will continue to have tulips for a while, more species of daffodils, and other plants that require a cold winter chilling period to bloom. This is one thing that the hill country normally doesn’t have.
The price we must pay for some of this beauty is wind, lack of moisture, and many of you will also say, the cold weather we get. Wind and cold are not my favorites, but I do like the cold weather with snow. However, I hate the wind. It saps my energy faster than hand digging sod for new garden beds in 100° heat. It’s a mental thing. When the wind really gets to howling, I close the shades and hunker down in my office to do “desk” work. If more of our bad windy weather would come a little earlier, I might actually get income tax return work completed with more time to spare.
We also complain about our soil conditions. I’ll take our alkaline, clay soil over that which I had for 20 years in New Jersey any day. My soil in the “Garden State” was thin and rocky. And, since I lived in a forest, it was also full of tree roots. I did like the acidic soil which gave me a larger plant palate, but this is now gone also as I have learned so much more about gardening, native plants, and working with nature. Besides, the acidic soil also came with acid rain that ruined everything from car finishes to the brass mailbox and light on the porch.
Gardening in Dallas and St. Louis was not without problems. Everywhere has its unique circumstances that are less than ideal.
Yes, we have wind, brown, and cold. But Amarillo has the right length of seasons, all four seasons, and we benefit with many colorful spring plants. I’ll take the bad with the good. I’ll take Amarillo!
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Garden Guy column: Taking the bad with the good
