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Zones and Ways
to Adjust to Climates in the Hilltowns
According
to most gardening books and catalogs, we live in Zone 4/5.
These zones are determined by last frost dates (spring) and
first frost dates (fall), giving an all-important growing
season period. Here is the key for you: a mini-zone can raise
your average number of days. Look at the stone walls and
south-facing structures in your neighborhood. They are the
first places to see the spring daffodils and forsythia. You
can do the same: just create a mini-zone of warming stones and
sheltering buildings where you wish to make an early spring
planting.
Catalogs
can do a dis-service to all of us who wish for an instant
beautiful garden. They take photographs of lush flowers to
entice us. How much money has been spent on a picture that
caught my eye, which resulted in disappointment? I used to
rail at the spindly plants that would arrive in the mail. I
would struggle to nurture these wisps, only to be rewarded
three or four years later with a beautiful plant. I remember a
variegated weigelia, looking glorious on the cover of a
catalog, that finally bloomed four years later.
Gardening
is a "sometimes" pleasure. We picture our gardens as the
beautiful reminders of our grandmothers, the botanical gardens
we visit, the grace added to our homes. Most of us do not have
the time our grandmothers had, the money the fabulous gardens
spend to bring us seasonal pleasure, or the budget to hire a
full-time gardener, such as myself, to care for a full-season,
beautiful and thriving garden.
Kneeling in
the dirt, dragging those heavy hoses around, and finding a
broken plant that may or may not make it through another
assault by the kids as they play - all these not-so-fun
activities make us think twice about the "pleasures" of
gardening. Truly, it is a "sometimes" pleasure.
But don't
give up. the pleasures of a smaller, more manageable garden
can be deeply rewarding.
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