Unpredictable weather leaves gardeners with questions

By Carol Weimer
Canastota Corner

My bouquet of pussy willows and butterfly bush needed refreshing. The yellow flowers are artificial but the pussy willows come from my own tree.

I didn’t think they’d be in bloom in late March. Wrong.

The tree is not visible from the windows, so I walked to the far reaches of our “ranch” to see how the willows were coming.

Would you believe they had all blossomed (or whatever they do) and gone to seed? No fresh willows for the bouquet this year.

The tulips I’ve had for years came up like they do every year, but no blossoms. Why? I read in the newspaper that other long-time tulip growers didn’t get blossoms this year, either. It was our extraordinary climate. Seems when the bud was supposed to form, the temperature wasn’t right. New tulips planted last fall weren’t affected and those folks had an array of blossoms.

I made up my mind that I would not mow any lawn in the month of March in New York state, so our grass became almost knee-deep before April arrived. I was tempted to find a farmer with goats to help me out, but I held my ground.

My service guy, Matt, delivered my tuned-up mower in March, but I didn’t start it up until April 6. Do you know how it is to mow through grass that high? My neighbor came over a few days after that and good-naturedly chastised me for mowing so early ... he’s waiting until May. Good luck to him.

When I called my lawnmower guy to remind him my machine needed to be serviced I chatted along with him as I usually do before getting to the reason I called. His answer was “when I get home I will be right down to get it, you are talking to me in Daytona Beach, Florida.” And I thought it was Clockville. I guess I will never get used to these cellphones.

Do you realize we will be mowing for at least seven months? That seems like an awful lot of lawnmowing. It’s good exercise, I’m told.

I’ve been asked if I’m going to plant a garden. Yes; I’ll have my tomatoes, squash, peppers and cukes. But what will the growing season be like? I have been in conversation with other small gardeners with the same questions.
Will it be unpredictable like our winter? Suppose we have all the wet rain to make up for the missing snow? Or will it be really hot because our winter was so mild? Or, will we get cool or abnormal temperatures? It’s whatever we get, so we will just have to take a chance and either decide to not garden this year, or plant and hope for the best. Mother Nature is the only one who decides what we will get, not the meteorologists who are as perplexed as we are.

Now, about the bugs. I’ve heard because of the mild winter, they will be out in record numbers this year. Isn’t that great? Mosquitoes are annoying, but can also be dangerous to our health. It’s probably best to stock up on all the sprays and lotions and try not to destroy the bugs that are good for our plant and environment.

I think it’s going to be an interesting summer, don’t you think?