April ’26: The pink and green of it all
What a joy, after the winter that was.
Where to even begin with April? Such a gift of a month after the long, snowy winter we had this year. Weather-wise, this month was quite a rollercoaster (see below) but watching this fledgling garden spring back to life, at the same time as we’ve been laying the groundwork for so much forward progress, has just been ... yeah, a gift.
There’s been tree blooming, plant shopping, seed sprouting, bird nesting and lots more—
Clockwise: whitebud in bloom; fava seedlings; redbud in its first bloom; serviceberry blossoms before the heat cut them short.
GARDEN NOTES
There’s no question that as the tree and shrub count in our little plot has grown, so has the bird population. This month we saw an incredible number of cardinals and robins visiting us, in particular, and a pair of the robins just completed a nest in view of our kitchen window. Likewise, the bees are all abuzz — especially in the whitebud tree (it’s a redbud, but white) that we had planted out front in 2023.
All of the plants we entered winter with are present and accounted for, the ironweeds being the last thing to send up their bright green shoots of intent. No losses this year! And in addition to the work we’ve been doing on the courtyard infrastructure — the building and painting — the cushions are back in the carporch chairs, the terra cotta pots have been brought out of the garage and restored to their spots, ready to receive whatever I may put in them this year. And the fava seedlings are going to town.
My well-considered purchase at Catskill Native, and an unplanned (but thrilling!) set of finds at Second Chance Plants. Those bloodroot blooms were gone the next day, not to be spotted again until next year (if I’m lucky)!
NEW ADDITIONS
I’ve mentioned before I have a bunch of plugs on order for later next month, but I’ve been acquiring some of the big pieces for the courtyard project and have collected a few other little gems along the way. Despite all my careful planning this winter so as to suppress impulse buys when the nurseries opened, on my first visit to one this season I fell under the spell of a Magnolia ‘Jane’ in bloom and just had to have her. It was April 3rd and her beautiful pink blooms (likely so early from being in a greenhouse before hitting the sales floor, as it were) were literally irresistible — but also gave me a new perspective on gardening for all the seasons that I’ll try to articulate another day. So there’s now a magnolia lurking in my native hedgerow! And I have no regrets.
Planted this month:
To make way for the magnolia, I moved a silky dogwood from the back-side fenceline to the front-side yard, where it will get more moisture from our sump pump. And alongside it another Juniper ‘Sea Green.’ I have a whole plan for this swampy spot in the yard that I’ll tell you about soon, but these things — which join a grey birch and a thuja tween — will anchor that plan when I get to it.
I also bought another serviceberry (this one larger than my first) that got planted at the back of the house last week.
And over the weekend I also started planting the raised bed at the back corner of the house: with a small (for now) multi-stem grey birch and a sweetshrub aka Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus) that I bought on impulse this time last year! Its native range is from VA to FL, so, south of me, but I fell for its unusual woodsy-tropical look.
Also acquired, awaiting planting:
• The bigger multi-stem grey birch to anchor the courtyard (see the sketch)
• The second Juniper ‘Taylor,’ also seen in that sketch
• Assorted NY/eastern native seedlings including two-leaf toothwort and bloodroot (both from my ephemerals list), the keystone common white yarrow (Achillea millefolium), a tiny white violet that’s supposed to have a little purple streak (Viola striata)
• And from a nursery overstock discount place in Philly*: a dozen PA sedge (Carex pensylvanica) starts, two Ostrich ferns for the porch and a little false indigo (specifically Baptisia ‘Twilite Prairieblues’), which is always crying out to me and I finally stopped resisting
I just have one or two other key vacancies to fill. But once my plugs arrive, that should be more than enough for me to deal with this year!
WEATHER + LARGER LANDSCAPE
We had a heat wave mid-month — temps 25-30° above average — wrapped by stretches of average temps with feels-likes of 10° colder. So it’s been a real whiplash season. After the heat being accompanied by a dry stretch, it’s been thankfully a bit rainier in the latter part of the month. The heat wave shifted garden plants into gear early, followed by two nights of frost. My new magnolia friend got her blooms singed, which was a bummer (thankfully my fava seedlings were unperturbed), but my heart is really broken for all the Hudson Valley farmers and orchard owners who suffered real losses for the coming season.
Highest high temp: 90° on April 16
Lowest high temp: 41° on April 2 (second was 46° on April 20)
Average high temp: 65°
Lowest overnight low: 26° on April 21
Rain days: 5 significant downpours, with scattered moisture elsewhere
MAY TO-DOs
• Finish painting garage
• Plant main plants in front of it
• Continue adding structural bits to courtyard, prep for pea graveling
• Be ready for the plugs when they arrive late month!
If you missed the update on the courtyard infrastructure projects last week, that’s right here, and all the courtyard posts are here.
*I went to Philly the other day to see a dear friend and the Piet Oudolf garden at the new Calder Gardens. I’ll tell you about the latter after I revisit it later in the year, once it’s filled in!
