Observations of a Middle Tennessee Gardener: Spring

By March 21st, the official first day of spring we already have had flowers blooming for several weeks and we've gotten passed our feelings being deprived that a lack of color that winter always seems to bring. We aren't into serious weed pulling yet, because at this stage you can't always tell the weeds from the flowers. This fact alone would make this time of year my favorite in the garden. What more can you ask more - beautiful colors and no weeds to pull?

Beautiful tulips, hyacinths, daffodils or as some Tennesseans call them buttercups, the pansies from the winter are looking good, blooming forsythia bushes and flowering red bud trees are everywhere. About the time I get used to seeing color again and start taking it for granted it's time to start pulling weeds. I'm usually caught off guard when toward the end of March or the beginning of April when I look across the yard and realize that all that is green is not pretty flowers.

It is a delicate balance, if I take too long to realize when it's time to weed those pesky things they will take over. Then I spend the next couple of weeks and possible the next month feeling like I'm always behind; which diminishes my pleasure in my gardens a little bit. By April the gardens are in full bloom, the daffodils are nearly gone, but the tulips are still beautiful and we have many other things blooming: bachelor buttons, azalea bushes, dogwood trees, irises, poppies, pincushions, money plant and a few other nameless flowers. Country folks around here call irises, flags. I don't know why they call them flags; but if somebody from Tennessee starts talking to you about all the beautiful flags growing in their yard, don't get vision of a row of American flags gently waving in the breeze.