March and April are frustrating months for the gardener in New England. This year we had several days in late February when the temperature soared into the 70s. The following week, a foot of snow.
Having lived in the North for nearly 30 years, I can’t say I’m surprised by this. But no amount of familiarity with the fickleness of spring makes it easier to bear.
This time of year is also frustrating for a garden columnist. One minute I’m looking out the window thinking it’s time to write about cleaning up the perennial beds. Then I see snow in the forecast and I shelve that piece for another week or two.
One of my favorite writers about nature and gardening is Ray Stannard Baker, a prominent journalist, historian and biographer who moved to Amherst in 1910 and stayed until his death in 1946. Baker lived in the once majestic house on Sunset Avenue that has suffered over the past several decades at the hands of a University of Massachusetts fraternity. He wrote several autobiographical works under the penname David Grayson.
With April just around the corner, I picked up Baker’s wonderful 1936 book, “The Countryman’s Year,” a month-by-month journal of his musings on gardening and life, to see what he had to say about this hurry-up-and-wait time of year. I flipped through the book looking for April. It took me a while to find it. The book doesn’t begin with January, but with April.
“The year begins for the true countryman at the moment when he puts his foot down into the soil of his own land…. I shall begin with the first touches of spring that come to our New England hills.”
How many times has April Fool’s Day arrived in a mess of “wintry mix”? (I have another word for this weather phenomenon, but I can’t write it here). Sure enough, Baker’s entry for April 1 begins: “Endless winter, raw and cold. Spring comes reluctantly. Old icy drifts still cling to the hillside, and in our garden there are patches of rotten snow north of the pines. We had a few days of fine weather in March when I was able to finish the pruning of my apple trees, but for the most part now for many days we have been living in a gray and sodden world wherein the key virtue is endurance.”
The second day of April brings no relief for Baker: “Worse and worse. A great snowstorm, a blizzard almost, is raging across the country. The earth looks like the dead of winter, as though the year had lost its way in the storm and turned backward.”
But April has its moments of glory, too. Birds return, with their familiar songs and flight patterns. An avid beekeeper, Baker notes that his bees are busily collecting pollen from early blooming flowers. On April 15, he observes that the “yellow necklace” of forsythia is in bloom, the maple tree is decked with “coral gems,” and a bluebird sings in its branches.
The following day, alas, there is heavy, wet snow in Baker’s world. “Our old New Englanders who believe religiously in the law of compensation expected it,” he writes. “We are being paid for the bright warm days of last week. Some kind of misery must of necessity follow every real moment of joy.”
As I read this I feel a sobering shock of recognition. I don’t consider myself an “old New Englander” but I am a reluctant believer in Baker’s “law of compensation.”
Despite the stops and starts in this “contrary New England spring,” by mid-month Baker rejoices as subtle traces of the new season became visible. “I love well this moment of the spring: the russets and browns of the marshes, and the new ruddy look of the hillsides. The edges of the fields are coming green: yesterday in the bare soil under the sumacs in our garden I found hyacinths in bloom. The first stirrings of new life! Why is it, as we grow older, that these moments of spring should be, yearly, more wistfully beautiful?”
Reading Baker on a sunny, warmish spring day reminds me of how wonderful it is to be outside again without feeling cold. The raucous red-winged blackbirds are back and the peepers in the wetlands are almost deafening. Take time to enjoy this see-saw moment in time. Even if you can’t get outdoors, sit by an open window and listen, smell and see spring as it arrives. Before we know it, we’ll be eating the last asparagus of the season and looking forward to local corn on the cob.
On April 15, from 2 to 3:30 p.m., Michael Kellett will give a presentation at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst about the importance of Massachusetts forests in our present day. Kellett will talk about how trees store carbon and mitigate and even reverse climate change, how forests provide critical habitat for native plants and wildlife, how forest preservation protects historic and sacred sites, and how forests provide opportunities for nature-based tourism.
Suggested donation: $10. Register at hitchcockcenter.org
Good question! It’s certainly something I ponder whenever I contemplate the patchy, neglected spaces between my garden beds and hardscapes. On April 21 from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, Andrew Hatfield of Pioneer Valley Organic Landscaping will talk about the complex relationship between grass plants and soil conditions that produces what we think of as a “lawn.” It’s a whole lot more than simply grass. Donations and registration appreciated. Go to: hitchcockcenter.org.
The winter months have given us a chance to forget about the pesky problem of weeding. But once again, weeds and invasive plants are on the minds of gardeners, landscapers, environmentalists; anyone who cares about the environment. On April 21, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge will present a talk by Teri Dunn Chace about invasive plants and how to control them in your landscape. Geared toward the homeowner, Chace’s talk will focus on practical information. She will define “weed,” and discuss the scope of the problem and what gardeners can realistically expect to achieve in their battle. She also will discuss several ways to combat weeds, both organic and non-organic options. And, she will tackle the thorny subject of herbicides. Because glyphosate/Roundup is the most well-known and widely used weed killer, she will explain what it is, how it works, and what its benefits and risks are.
Chace is a writer and editor with more than 35 titles in publication, including “Seeing Seeds” (winner of a 2016 American Horticultural Society Book award), “Seeing Flowers,” “How to Eradicate Invasive Plants” and “The Anxious Gardener’s Book of Answers.” A book sale and signing with follow the talk. Members: $15/nonmembers: $25. For more information and to register, go to: berkshirebotanical.org.
Mickey Rathbun can be reached at mickey.rathbun@gmail.com.