Garden Success

After the hideous, wintry January we had, I thought spring would take her sweet time getting here. But she arrived, settled in, and unpacked her bags in March, and seems ready to take up permanent residence.

I've written before about how absolutely HORRIBLE my garden soil is. I have had more failures here already in less than three years, than I had all totaled at four other addresses over more than twenty years. I've had trees, perennials, and annuals look puny, perform poorly, and out and out croak. The other day, I discovered that one of my cherished Japanese maples has died back almost all the way to the ground. Only the very bottom branch shows signs of life this spring. The rest is deader than a matchstick.

However, the pictures above are of my one startling success on this property. They are crabapple trees that I planted last spring. We got them at a close-out sale in the fall of 2002, for 75% off. Intended to plant them immediately, but like all my other plants, they had to endure the test of spending the winter in their nursery pots in the back yard. They survived the winter all right, even leafed out and bloomed come spring. Then, all at once, they dropped all their flowers and leaves---basically shed themselves of any sign of life. In a fit of "What the hell!" I planted them anyway. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was nuts, planting these obviously dead sticks in a prominent place between the back fence and the street, for all to observe and admire (smirk at?)

We faithfully tended those "dead" trees. Husband set up a drip irrigation system for them; I fertilized, weeded, and did everything but pray over them. Slowly, they rewarded our efforts by sprouting new leaves, and even a few late-season flowers. I worried about them over this past, nasty winter. Well, I'm here to tell you, they made it through in grand style.