The Whistling Gardener

by Steve Smith

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, located at 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., and a respected local expert on all things horticultural. You can reach Steve at 425-334-2002 or by e-mail at [email protected].

There's no point in letting the politicians have all the fun. I can put together a synopsis of this past year and make predictions for this coming year just as easily as they can. And truth be known, most of what they and I say may never come to pass, but it will be good fodder for the pundits. So let the games begin.

2010: A year to forget.

It was one of the more miserable years to be a gardener, right up there with 2008 if anyone can remember back that far. And the irony of it all is that it started out with such promise.

The first three months of 2010 were warm and relatively dry and full of optimism and hope for a good spring and warm summer. My cool season crops of lettuce and cabbage and radishes and spinach never looked better. But alas, when it came time to plant our beans and corn and cucumbers, we planted and we planted them again and perhaps even once more until many of us said the heck with it. The soils were just too bloody cold and the seeds rotted. We struggled through April, May, and even June until finally in July the sun began to shine and the mercury rose above 60 degrees and our plants started to grow.

Although it was a cool summer by our standards, there was still enough sun and heat to make things grow respectfully. My corn, while not getting more than about 4 feet tall, still managed to produce some small but very sweet ears. Blueberries were plentiful, but my strawberries were constantly moldy to the point that I pulled them all up this fall and plan to start fresh this spring. My hot tropical border in front of the house was the most lush it has ever been despite the lack of sun and heat. Some things were very late to bloom, if at all, but since this border is built mostly on foliage and textures it didn't detract from the overall effect. Nevertheless, I would have preferred the heat of summer over the lushness of the border.

Many of us were recovering from the two previous winters of death and destruction heaped on us in successive Decembers. Broadleaf shrubs looked like they had been hit with a blow torch and Phormiums were reduced to a pile of limp blades. We had cut them back, fertilized and nursed them back to a state of respectability when yet another killer freeze in November fried them again. I, for one, will be removing every last Nandina on my property by the time spring rolls around this year, even though I know that if I once again cut them back hard they will rebound and look fine by this fall. I think deep down I must be bored of these plants anyway, and am rather happy that I will be able now to shop for something new without feeling the least bit of guilt. After all, life is temporal, and that includes some of the plants in my landscape.

The year finished up with the early freeze, lousy fall color and way too much rain. I never quite managed to finish planting my fall bulbs or cleaning out my rain gutters or totally raking up the fallen leaves and twigs from my birch. All and all, the season started late and finished early and I am glad as hell it is finally over.

On to 2011.

2011 will of course be the polar opposite of this last debacle of a gardening season. I can feel it in my bones (which unfortunately I am feeling way too much nowadays). How do I know this, you might ask? In the interest of fairness, I believe Mother Nature owes us. We are way past due for the kind of gardening year we all deserve and long for.

It will be a warm spring with gentle rain falling only between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and never on the weekends. The soils will warm up as if on cue and all of our seeds will germinate 100 percent. There will be no rust, black spot or mildew on our roses, no brown rot on our plums, peaches and cherries and no scab, anthracnose or mildew on our pears and apples.

Mummyberry on our blueberries will be a thing of the past and our hollyhocks and snapdragons will be rust-free the entire season. None of our tall perennials, like delphiniums and peonies, will succumb to rain and wind and prostrate themselves on the ground while we are at work. Lilacs will be free of blight, leaf miners and mildew, and bloom the little heads off for weeks on end.

Fall webworms, pear slugs and those nasty aphids that appear overnight by the thousands will meet their doom by natural predators like lady bugs, lacewings and birds. Slugs will succumb to lockjaw and not be able to open their mouths and ultimately wither away, never to be seen again. Finally, weeds will uproot themselves and jump into our yard waste bins while we are in the house drinking our lattés.

And oh yes, there will even be a chicken in every pot. Welcome to the glorious gardening season of 2011.

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached at 425-334-2002 or online at [email protected]