The Other Rite of Spring

I have a favorite greenhouse/garden center I've gone to since we moved to Bean Hill and began some really serious perennial gardening. Baker's Acres in Alexandria is family owned and operated, and specializes in perennials for the yard, as well as unique tropical plants for indoor gardening. I drive through pleasant country roads to get there, enjoying farm fields, horses (Licking County is popular with the horsey set), and the heron rookery with dozens and dozens of large heron nests perched high up in the trees. If you pass the rookery as the sun is beginning to set, you see the heron parents and their babies in silhouette, which is a pretty neat sight.

When I'm just going on a scouting expedition to Baker's, I take Kaytee, because dogs are welcome. Everyone who works at Baker's is knowledgeable about plants, and happy in their work. Shoppers are friendly and considerate. I mark the annual re-opening on my calendar, because between loads and loads of beautiful plants, colorful pots, fun garden art, and nice people, a trip to Baker's is guaranteed to inspire, delight, and just make ya feel good.

A trip to Baker's on opening day is a much-anticipated rite of Spring, a rite that Kaytee and I happily performed this beautiful spring-time afternoon.

In Celebration of Spring

It's the Spring Equinox, and to celebrate, I'm sharing photos taken over the years at Bean Hill of emerging life. At the bottom of this page is information about the pictures.

                       

     

    

   

        

Dawn of spring, 2016.
Apple, crabapple, and dogwood trees blooming in mid-April.
The crabapple we call "Mother" because we planted it for Mother on her 95th birthday.
A bright yellow daffodil--one of many!
Pretty Johnny Jump-ups.
Daffodils in one of the front gardens.
Crocus surrounded by stonecrop sedum.
An opposum stopped by a birdfeeder after waking up from his (or her)winter nap.
Dogwood blossoms.
Trout Lilies grow all through the woods in early spring.
Spring comes to the Jersey Woods.
A harmless snake emerged from the pipe where she (or he) apparently spent the winter.
May Apple, another woodland flower.
"Spring Beauties" are tiny white and pink flowers that grow in abundance at the edge of the woods in April.

A Rite of Spring

New York Ironweed

From the start, our vision for Bean Hill's landscape included natural meadows. Being city folk, we knew nothing about creating and maintaining meadow land, but fortunately discovered Wild Ones (http://www.wildones.org/), an organization dedicated to "healing the Earth one yard at a time" by preserving native plants and restoring natural landscapes. We attended a workshop, did a lot of reading, and prepped the areas  as best we could. (We opted not to burn off the existing vegetation.)

June meadow and Carr Farms

Today two of Bean Hill's 5.6 acres are kept as meadows. I love seeing them evolve during the year. Early on in the growing season, daisies dominate, then echinacea and rudbeckia. The appearance of ironweed, a plant I'd never seen before moving to the country, signals the approach of autumn. Meadows provide a vital habitat, offering food and shelter to birds, insects, and small mammals.

A healthy meadow requires maintenance, and that means mowing it down. Come March, we begin checking the weather for a dry spell when we can mow down the withered stalks. We keep an old Ford tractor with a big mowing deck for the sole purpose of cutting down the meadows once a year. The mowing serves aesthetic as well as practical purposes.The first hard frost means everything in the meadows turns brown and brittle. It adds some winter interest to the landscape, but as spring begins, it's just plain unattractive. Practically speaking, mowing is essential for combatting natural succession, especially in the meadows near our woods. Without mowing, tree seeds will take root and eventually populate the meadow with saplings. Mowing also helps scatter flower and grass seeds still clinging to dried stalks, although by spring, most of these have been dispersed by winter storms.

March meadow and Carr Farms

It's a bit odd to look out across a flattened landscape once the mowing is done, but the payoff comes soon, with fresh grass and sprouting perennials peeping through the cuttings. By early June, the grasses will be 2-3 feet high and growing, and wildflowers will provide spots of color.

Top left: Mowing down the meadow by the pond.

Lower left: The same spot in mid-summer.

The Too-Warm Hard Truth

My stats for February weather at Bean Hill--and for most of the nation--are in. Despite the beautiful flowers that burst into bloom just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and the welcome shedding of heavy coats, gloves and warm foot-gear (sandals were sighted!) north of it, there is no cause for celebration. February 2017 didn't just set new records for warmth, on some days it absolutely shattered them (See "February Monthly Record Highs Shattered in the East and Midwest" https://weather.com/forecast/national/news/warm-temperatures-spring-fever-mid-february-presidents-day.)

Winter 2016-2017's warmest and coldest temperatures*

On February 24, the high at Bean Hill hit 75⁰ and set a new record. Considerably fewer records were set at Bean Hill in February than in the previous month, but the three record highs and one tied record high were joined by 14 days of highs ranging from 10-23⁰ degrees above normal. This means that 64% of February saw temperatures well above normal. And as with January, low temperatures also were above normal. Little wonder there was all the flora and fauna activity noted in my previous blog. The day it hit 75⁰ was the day I noticed the weeping crab-apple tree by my study window had sprouted tiny little green leaves. This is called "breaking dormancy prematurely" and the consequences, if and when the temperatures fall, can be disastrous for the plant--be it tree, shrub, or perennial flower. I almost cried when I saw those little leaves, knowing that a big temperature drop was imminent. Yesterday the high temperature didn't go above 39⁰, and last night's low was 23⁰. We had snow squalls all last evening. Ordinarily, I wouldn't object to any of this "normalcy"--in fact, I welcome it--but the fact is, the weeping crab-apples have sprouted leaves.

Tiny green leaves against a snowy backdrop

Every Spring,  I eagerly await the blossoming of what I consider the most spectacular flowering tree to be seen in these parts. Because they've broken dormancy too early, there's the possibility the trees won't be able to put on the their usual spectacular display of pink blossoms. And if the number of blossoms are reduced, the amount of fruit, a natural food source for beloved birds such as cardinals, bluejays, and chickadees, will be reduced. Every time the local meteorologist and news anchors literally cheer over the too-warm weather that goes on day-after-day, I wonder if they really understand the dire consequences of climate-change to all living things.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?
The climate change we are currently seeing
is largely the result of human activity.

This morning I read a New York Times article entitled "Top Trump Advisors Are Split on Paris Agreement on Climate Change". The reason for the split really struck me: "On one side of that debate is Mr. Bannon, who as a former chief executive of Breitbart News published countless articles denouncing climate change as a hoax, and who has vowed to push Mr. Trump to transform all his major campaign promises into policy actions. On the other side are Ms. [Ivanka] Trump, Mr. [Rex] Tillerson, and a slew of foreign policy advisers and career

diplomats who argue that the fallout of withdrawing from the accord could be severe, undercutting the United States' credibility on other foreign policy issues and damaging relations with key allies." [Emphasis added]

Really? Losing our credibility and damaging relations with key allies are the arguments against withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement? I think continuously aberrant weather patterns and abnormally high temperatures that threaten all living things should be the reasons for sticking with the international community's agreement to try to save the planet. But if arguing that the United States should stick to the Paris Climate Agreement simply to preserve the nation's credibility is the only argument anyone in the current administration is willing or able to make, I say "bless 'em"!

*Retrieved March 3, 2017 at https://weather.com/news/climate/news/winter-2016-2017-warmest-coldest-wettest-driest-records
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**Retrieved March 3, 2017 at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/climate-change-trump.html?emc=edit_th_20170303&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=56592836

***Retrieved March 3, 2017 at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015-paris-climate-talks/where-in-the-world-is-climate-denial-most-prevalent

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