Garden Explosion!

You never know how fast Mother Nature can work until you leave her to her own devices…

When I left home for a few days in early May, the woods hadn’t yet leafed out, the perennial crops were just barely emerging from the soil, and the raised beds were free of weeds. Upon my return this past weekend, I almost didn’t recognize my own garden! 

In my absence, the yard had burst into a sea of green… And finally, all the trees had actual leaves!

But the downside…

Horsetail was everywhere. Most of the invasive, narrow shoots were at least eight inches high, some were as tall as a foot: filling the vegetable beds, the paths, and any spot of soil that didn’t have a plant in it. 

And while I’ve made my peace with dandelions (well, almost, I’m pretty sure) because they’re so pollinator-friendly, I couldn’t help feeling a bit a dismay to see the wall-to-wall yellow blossoms around the yard. 

But the upside of Spring being sprung…

Rhubarb ready to harvest

The saucer-sized rhubarb leaves were now as big as dinner plates, the tall stalks ready for harvest! (By the way, I priced organic rhubarb yesterday…$5.99/lb.!) 

The week before

And I found a rhubarb bonus:last fall, I had a crown that had given  up the ghost. Producing only tiny leaves all summer, the plant was surely a goner. I put it out of its misery by digging out the roots, covering the area with mulch and said a regretful bye-bye.

I came home to find a leaf sticking out from the cardboard mulch covering the crown. I pulled away the cardboard, and…Voila! Alive!

Rhubarb rising from the dead!

Then there’s the asparagus…I’d left a bed with four little spears. I returned to a harvest-ready crop—and now I’m picking about 15-20 spears each day.

And strawberries. I was concerned for my first-year beds after the last Northeaster front heaved the crowns right out of the soil. But while I was gone…they grew six inches! 

Strawberries putting on growth!

Finally, a different kind of explosion…

Two days ago, I looked across the yard at my blueberry patch and noticed something odd about the old cedar stump in between a couple of shrubs. 

Back when my husband John and I created our blueberry patch, the stump had resisted every effort to dig it out. 

And we knew very well that cedar takes forever to break down. That’s why we still have gigantic slabs of cedar logs littering out woods from a clear cut decades ago.

Anyway, we ended up just leaving the stump right where it was—and it’s been impervious to being removed ever since.

Then Nature took a hand. Yesterday, I went into the patch to check out the strange-looking stump. The short piece of hardware cloth at the entry to the patch (for rabbit protection) was bent over.

As for the stump…It was like a mini-bomb had been planted in its center.

Chunks of stump, large and small, lay in a circle around it. Red “sawdust” from it’s center was everywhere. Yet small holes punctuated the whole inside of the stump.

Well, it didn’t take a genius! There had to have been ants or grubs in that stump, that some enterprising critter snacked on by pulling apart the stump.

The question was, what animal could have been strong enough to destroy the stump?

We’ve had bears get into our orchards and the last time, one did a number on the biggest stump in our yard…but that was an easy guess. The bear had also climbed our crabapple tree and broke it in half. 

Plus it did another kind of number…that is, left an unmistakable calling card!

As for this stump…there was absolutely no damage to the two blueberry shrubs surrounding it. It was like the animal meticulously dug into the stump, had a nice meal, then politely exited.

John and I are guessing a raccoon did the deed—although I’ve never seen one in the neighborhood, much less our yard.

Still, there’s always a first time. So you can bet I’ll be keeping watch for those guys from here on out!