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A
Normal Spring
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There is no such thing as a
normal spring in western Nebraska and eastern
Wyoming—which makes this spring, well, pretty
normal. During the recent extended drought we
often saw warm spring weather arrive around Mid
April, and in several years, the last spring frost
occurred between the 20th and 25th
of April. For those who don’t know, the region’s
historical average date of last frost is about May
10th and the “frost free date”—the date
after which frost should never occur—is about May 20th.
In a normal spring, the region almost always
experiences an extended warm spell in March—but no
such luck this year. A late arriving spring has
remained comparatively late in developing, and it
appears that our last frost dates are going to be
more “normal” than in recent years.
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t’s certainly time to put in
the first of the vegetable garden crops like
spinach, lettuce, peas, cabbage, broccoli, and
cauliflower, but in this abnormally normal spring, I
would recommend holding off another until around
Memorial Day on the summer vegetable garden crops
like beans, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and
peppers. If you want to start a tomato plant or
two to get some of those early red tomatoes—perhaps
even in early July, plant an early ripening tomato
variety now, but plant it in a Wall-o-water or the
old-fashioned milk-jug to keep in warm until
dependable summer temperatures arrive, hopefully by
early June.
The abnormally normal spring is a good time to plant
trees and shrubs—especially with the return of
spring rain |
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Previous Articles
A
Loooooong Winter
March 10
Just Dirt
March 18
Horse Manure & Hot Air
March 25
Mulch
to do this Spring
April 01
Creating Long Term
Tree-lationships
April 15
Spring Blooming
Shrubs & Trees
April 22
New
and Improved
Nebraska Arbor Day
April 29
A Normal
Spring
May 6
The Winter
of Eight Moons
May 13
2009
Articles
2008 Articles
2007 Articles
2006 Articles
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If the frosts yet to occur are not too cold, it
should be a good year for fruit trees in Wyobraska.
I recently saw an apricot tree still blooming in
late April—it’s the earliest blooming of fruit
trees, normally blooming in mid March in Wyobraska,
with the result that the early blooms are nailed by
a hard frost and rarely produce fruit. I suspect
that at least some Wyobraska apricot tree owners are
finally going to get a little fruit this year. It
is also likely to be a good year for peaches, and,
of course, for apple, cherry, and plum.
If you are wondering when is the right time to begin
your flower and vegetable gardening in this
abnormally normal year, that’s a good question.
Many of the new and improved flowers now sold in
garden centers are frost tolerant, so it’s certainly
OK to begin planting up a few of those patio
containers with the new flowers that you have been
seeing in all of the catalogues this past winter.
And you might want to start hanging out a few of the
hanging baskets that Mom got as gifts for Mother’s
Day—after all, they’re real easy to bring in to the
warm house if frost is in the weather forecast.
But you may want to plan on a slightly more extended
flower planting season and hold off for another
couple of weeks on the true annuals like marigolds,
zinnias, and coleus, for example.
I
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showers and an occasional “normal spring” 2-3
day rainy spell. The secret to successful tree
planting, regardless of the spring weather, is to
properly prepare a 6-8 foot diameter tree planting
site by 1. Removing the sod, 2. Loosening the
soil by spading or forking—it’s a good time to add 2
inches of compost and about 5 pounds of sulfur over
the entire site before spading or forking, 3. Then
plant the tree in the center of the site—be sure to
plant your tree just a little bit higher than the
surround lawn and to settle the soil back around the
roots by placing a slow running hose right over the
top of the tree root ball until all of the backfill
soil has “turned to mud”, 4. Then smooth out the
tree planting site with a rake and cover the entire
site with 3-4 inches of a good shredded wood mulch.
And, of course, this is
Mother’s Day Weekend, which in Wyobraska has become
the traditional start to the gardening season around
the region--regardless of whether the spring is
normal or abnormal.
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