A New Spring Day At The Urban Garden

Well certainly I can see that Spring Has Arrived at the urban garden. Well officially today at 12:30 PM anyways. I do know that it is here though because yesterday I heard a familiar song and looked up to see a Robin Red Breast sitting in one of the Kentucky Coffee Trees calling for it’s mate. The weather has been very warm this week as well it has been in the low 60′s for the past couple of days. We have gotten a lot of work done the lawns have all been raked and prepared for over seeding as well as the perennial beds have been fertilized and pre-emergent herbicides applied. But that is not how I know that it is Spring in Chicago, the reason I know is that after several days of almost balmy weather there will be rain, and snow, and cold weather for the weekend. That is typical for the urban garden at this time of year.

The best you can hope for here in the spring is to have a few days of dry weather and some days that are in the upper 40′s low 50′s so we have already been blessed with some great weather. I see all the spring flowering bulbs are starting to burst through the ground getting ready for their big show. You would not believe how many people have asked me in the last week when will you be planting the tulips. It use to amaze me when people would ask this question but I realize now that it is just an honest question because they don’t know. I do try to educate them a little and hope maybe next October they will remember and pick up a bag of tulips for their yard.

I guess it is because I garden for a living that I feel like when someone comes up to me with a question that I should try and answer them with a little education mixed in. I think some times we forget that we know things that others don’t. When I was younger I did a stint of working for Service Master A Huge Company at the time in the Commercial Cleaning And Maintenance field. I was not there for very long but I remember having to go to the President’s house with a crew and do a spring cleanup in his yard well okay I guess you would call it an estate. I may have mentioned this before but the thing that really impressed me was here this guy who was running a company that was known World Wide and running alongside the pool deck was this large bed that was all cultivated and he was growing his own potatoes. I mean a lot of potatoes and it really left an impression. You never know who may be a gardener and outward or public appearance does not always tell you much about a person. As was a the case with an older gentleman I met one day at the urban garden. He came up as I was working in one of the beds and wanted to strike up a conversation. He was in his seventies and I thought he was just lonely and looking for some one to talk to. To be polite I stopped what I was doing to spend a couple of moments to talk to him. I was amazed at some of the things I learned from him in a few minutes. See he started cutting grass as a teenager and by the time he quit he had built a big lawn maintenance company and he was a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about gardening and landscape maintenance. The most important thing was he wanted to share what he knew with others. So if you are new to gardening or an experienced pro it is always right to ask a question no matter how basic because if you don’t know something you never will unless you ask someone.

Well back to Spring In Chicago as I am writing this I can here the birds outside the window sing and chirping away and that is what I enjoy so much when I am out in the garden is the songs that nature provide while I am about my business in the garden . I hope that you have had a chance to get out in your garden and do some work . If not I hope the weather this week will provide you with a chance to get out and enjoy a a beautiful Spring Day !