The Early Season Garden

I posit that it is relatively easy to have a floriferous and bountiful high summer garden and very often our plant choices reflect this. I think it is in part because we are trained by garden centers and pretty magazine images to buy plants in bloom for immediate gratification as if flowers are the only important attribute in our experience with a plant. We are also used to (and appreciative of), the much longer bloom time of cultivated annuals. As long as we do not let them go to seed they will keep blooming. However, the seasonal changes of perennials, shrubs, and trees are unique and can be subtle. I would not be without their mutability in my garden.

This list comprises plants that look interesting as they are waking up - when blooming, certainly, but also when they are emerging and unfurling their foliage. A major component of the spring garden, bulbs, is currently missing, as I do not offer too many spring-blooming bulbs in the nursery, although I have many in my garden. This gap will eventually be addressed in blog posts as well as in the plant catalog.

Besides visual joy for the gardener, spring blooms offer much appreciated and much needed pollen and nectar. In our region, early-blooming native trees and shrubs provide the bulk of this food, with perennials fulfilling the role later. Because this is mostly happening high above our heads, we underestimate the value to awakening insects of our native trees and shrubs. If you plant nothing else, plant native trees and shrubs wherever you can. They are enduring and significant features in a rich, sustainable, and ecologically-based garden.

I view my spring garden as a complete and unique experience that gradually disappears as my summer garden grows up and over it. It has its own emotional tenor. The design term used is "season extension" which is so quotidian for what a well grown springtime garden can be. In the emerging garden there is a moment in which the ground is akin to a magical carpet and the air is filled with blossoms, unfurling leaves, and birdsong. Who wants to miss that?