April 17, 2022- Where is spring?

We are in the second half of April and we are still waiting for it to warm up.  Yesterday was sunny......and 45 degrees. With a wind. And that was in the middle of the afternoon. We got a bundle of wood and had a fire in the fireplace. On April 16.

It was like that for most of the week. Several times this week when we were leaving for an early morning walk, I have started to wear my lighter jacket. I then turned around and got my winter coat.

However...

Finally...

Slowly...

In the neighborhood the forsythia finally started to bloom. The star magnolia in the back yard is trying to get started. We saw the first tulip this week, but not yet in our yard. I planted a whole lot of species tulips this past fall. I do look forward to them. 

As for flowers in the garden, the aconite and snowdrops have finished blooming. The other spring bulbs that naturalize have taken over.

Do you know pushkinia?  It is a genus in the asparagus family. Similar to its cousin the scilla, it is an "early spring" bloomer. 

It spreads and will grow in your lawn. There are a few houses in the neighborhood that have it all over their lawn. It is a nice presentation. By the time the grass needs cutting it is mostly done.

I have a few of these guys in the lawn but I do not have much lawn. Instead it has its own section of the garden where it dominates for a few weeks. 

Here is that section for the pushkinia. All those stakes are for lilium. I sort of planted a lot last fall.

Then there are the hellebores. To some extent all the early spring flowers are 4-6 inches tall: ankle-high. What literally stand out at this point are the daffodils and the hellebores. I grow some of each. They are out there at 12 inches tall, weathering the very windy conditions we have had for a while.

One of the joys of gardening is being surprised, in a good way. Sometimes that happens is when you forget something that you planted in the previous fall.

This popped up this week in the bed along Fairview. Then I noticed that there were 5-6 of them in that immediate vicinity. This suggested intentionality which must have meant I planted them there. 

It is a dog toothed violet, or erythronium.  It is apparently called a dog toothed violet after the shape of its root. 

This little guy, no more than 4-5 inches tall, blooms pink. There is a native wildflower variety in Iowa that blooms white. That variety has a spot in the garden where they grow by the thousands, in a very small space. In fact that patch always makes me think of large numbers.

Here is that other wildflower from last April 7.

It seems like we are about 2 weeks behind where spring was last year.

I was talking about surprises.

For one thing you do not find as many surprises unless you spend the time. People come to see the garden and to buy plants for the food bank sale. I sometimes want to follow them around pointing out the gems they are missing.

Here was one such gem today. It is a rather special bloodroot. It has more than the usual petals, but it is not the double one.

If you look just to the right of the bloodroot there is another dog toothed violet. You can see the mottled leaf which is rather distinctive.

Can this orange be natural. This sent up a bloom stalk despite several winter months of neglect. Plants can be amazingly forgiving.

This gives a color contrast to the orange. They are both on the dining room table at the moment,

This tiny trillium has started to bloom, down there in the 4 inch part of the garden.

Primroses are special. I try to add a few each year. That about keeps up with the attrition rate.

While crocus time is almost in the rear view mirror, there are a few late bloomers.

The double bloodroot is starting. Judging from the temperatures this coming week, it should be around for the next week. 

What is coming?

Tree peonies are thinking about blooming. Maybe in 2 weeks.

Virginia bluebells should bloom as soon as it gets warm.

The nice clump of cypripedium orchids is maybe 2 weeks away.

And the tulips. Julia's birthday is May 1. Maybe her favorite tulips, Monsella and Shirley can bloom then.

And so much more. 

Julia's recipe

Arugula Pesto

America's Test Kitchen had an episode (on PBS) which featured honey-glazed salmon and arugula pesto. Sounded interesting, although I do not usually glaze anything with honey, so we did not do that part. Philip is growing arugula from seed at the moment. Take-away: it sprouts really quickly. Our arugula is in the future. It's mid-April and the overnight temperature was 34 degrees. Still, the pesto sounded interesting so we bought a box of baby arugula and gave it a whirl. 

The ingredients: 

1 5 oz. box of arugula;

1/4 cups toasted almonds;

some anchovy paste - maybe 4 inches of squirted paste;

1 serrano pepper;

4 cloves garlic (peeled);

1/4 cup lemon juice;

1/4 cup olive oil;

about 1 teaspoon kosher salt.

You'll need a blender or food processor.

Notes on ingredients: 1) The recipe called for 6 oz. of arugula. My grocer's arugula comes in 5 oz. boxes so that's what I used. 2) This pesto is pretty intense - hot and garlicky. Feel free to take the seeds and ribs out of the serrano. Or use a jalapeno instead, with or without seeds and ribs. 3) I used 4 pretty good-sized garlic cloves. Use fewer if you like. 4) I do not own anchovy fillets. Somehow, anchovies never were a thing in my household growing up, and so I'm not an anchovy person. If you are, use 4 anchovy fillets (rinsed) instead of the paste. 

I started by peeling the garlic cloves and washing then slicing up the serrano. And I put the almonds in a pie plate which I baked in the oven for about 5 minutes while I was heating it up (to 425 degrees) for the salmon which would roast in the oven later. 

I put the garlic, almonds, anchovy paste and serrano into the food processor and zizzed it up for about 30 seconds until it was kind of ground up.

Then I added the arugula, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and zizzed some more.

An action sequence of food processor zizzing work.

After the pesto was done, I put it in a bowl and set it aside.  Next, I put washed (but unpeeled) quartered yukon gold potatoes (tossed with olive oil and salt) on a silpat-covered rimmed baking sheet. After about 10 or 15 minutes, I put the salmon in a different baking dish (sprayed with no-stick spray) and rubbed it with a little olive oil followed by kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  I had already de-seeded and sliced up an unpeeled delicata squash, which I also tossed with olive oil and kosher salt. 

I took the pan with the potatoes out of the oven, pushed the potatoes down to one end and added the squash to the other end. I put the potato-squash rimmed baking sheet on one shelf, and the salmon baking dish on another shelf and let everything cook for about 15 minutes more. 

Philip made a salad, and I rinsed and portioned up some raspberries with yogurt. 

Here it is, on the plate. It was tasty. The fish was keta salmon, which is mild, and the pesto was pungent. The potatoes and squash were crisp and soft at the same time and a little salty. Followed by salad and berries. Nice dinner. 

Odds and Ends

There is a magic moment in very early spring when everything has just started. At that time nothing is finished blooming. There are no bugs and no weeds. We are past that moment. The weeds have begun to appear. While I have not seen a blooming dandelion, they are growing. Sometimes I use a knife when I weed them out from next to something special, like the double bloodroot.

While I hesitate to write this, the deer are mostly leaving the garden along. I will apply another dose of the spray so the tulips can bloom. I did see a neighborhood duck checking out the pond yesterday. We have a pond guard in the back garage.

Colin went and got me compost yesterday. Potting little plants like bloodroot do not take much dirt. I had a supply from last fall. But I am running short. I am starting to pot  plants that need bigger containers. The first hosta have emerged. They need more dirt for potting.

Algae bloom- this remarkable story with pictures was in the Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/science/bioluminescence-photographers-new-zealand.html?action=click&module=card&pageType=theWeekenderLink

We have one more bundle of wood for this evening. After Tuesday night the night temperatures are suppose to stay above 35. That will be warm enough for some plants to go outside on the back driveway. 

Find the spring where you are.

And pray for peace.

Philip