Spring is in full swing. The multitudinous shades of green are eye-wateringly intense. Perennials are popping up everywhere in sight, as are fall-planted vegetables such as garlic. Cool season greens are coming on strong. Snow is forecast for tonight.
Wait! What? How can that be? First year gardeners are looking at their weather apps in disbelief and wondering if they missed a memo. Seasoned growers are nodding knowingly while cursing under their breath. We're all just trying to hold on until the last frost date passes and we can really dig in.
My strategy for getting through these difficult days is bringing my unplanted flat of annuals inside and hoping for the best. There are too many plants out there to make it feasible to attempt to cover them. If they can't survive this sort of weather, they should have stayed in the ground, right? No mollycoddling here.
The exceptions to this tough love attitude are the banana plants. They are vigorously sending up shoots, completely oblivious to the danger that is looming, and need full protection to ensure no damage is done. I don't mind having a few plants that need extra care to ensure survival, but too many delicate specimens create a drain on my time and energy. The best plants tolerate temperature and moisture extremes, and aren't easily overcome by weeds such as the dreaded ground ivy.
So far the sheer awesomeness of the bananas easily outweighs any extra time spent on them, but many other plants just aren't worth it. I've found lavender to be particularly difficult to grow. I was just about to give up on it after losing plant after plant in the current super-moist conditions of the Mid-Ohio Valley. I tried raised beds with lots of soil amendments, pots with sandy soil, pots up on stilts to aid drainage. To no avail; it never survived the winters. I finally dragged a pot with a sole survivor into an unheated shed and left it all winter. That did the trick. Sometimes it's not a matter of doing more work, but of figuring out the specific needs of the plant. Apparently lavender doesn't care how cold it gets as long as the soil is bone dry.
It's important to find a balance between the work necessary to keep a plant thriving, and the gifts you receive from the plant. When you've found this balance, gardening will never feel like a chore, but rather a satisfying give and take.
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