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| Butterfly daffodils |
The garden stayed green most of the winter, and dandelions bloomed in January. We finally got the big snow after some serious freezes, so the garden took on that dull grey-brown color. But yesterday we had spring-like weather, sunshine, and the emergence of bulb plants.
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| Mt. Hood daffodils! |
Decades ago we bought a tent on sale so we could camp out overnight (not my idea). We picked a day when it was fixing to rain all night, which made the tent collapse more than once. I was sent cruelly outside to pound the stakes in firmer, to keep the interior somewhat dry. All winter in Michigan we discussed whose fault it was, to get the tent on sale and spend a long night in the soaking rain. It was the winter of our discount tent.
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| Kale comes in a wide variety of colors, planted for the winter in Columbus, Ohio, for being colorful and bug-free. |
Winter seems to have a grip on everything until the sunshine forces the dormant bulbs to finish their work and bloom. The purchased bulbs arrive rather dry and perfectly ugly. In the soil, they root out, plump up, and send the plant up near the surface. More than once I have found the ambitious ones halted near the surface, waiting for spring. That is why a heavily planted bulb garden will change from nothing to a miracle, almost overnight.
Some snow may come, but that only helps the hardy bulbs (as they are called). City slickers do not realize that a large number of plants thrive in the winter and use the cold to avoid bugs. Kale is one of the best examples - coming in ornamental colors.
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| Dandelions spread in the monoculture of lawn grass, but they behave well in the garden, one of the best herb greens to eat. |
