April 2025

The proverbial they who say "March is in like a lion & out like a lamb" do not live in the Hudson Valley in the year of our lord 2025. Because April was our actual transition from winter into spring. (Aka summer since it's already hit 80 multiple times. What even is spring?) You would be forgiven for thinking this photo from April 12th is a repeat of the blog photo from January, but it is not. And then behold literally 2 weeks later, my first peony had almost bloomed!

Here's a few side by side shots of the garden in early April & late April. The difference blows my mind.

In addition to being our transition month, April is also the month of tulips. Once they start, it's a mad dash. Farmers are constantly talking about how many times a day they had to harvest because the tulips are blooming so fast. And yet...

And yet, I confess, I don't really like them as cut flowers in my design work. In your garden, they're incredible. In a vase by themselves on your kitchen counter, they're pretty great too. But, with the exception of Belle Epoques, I try to avoid them in my arrangements. For me, the color is often too bright. The stems are either completely floppy or incredibly stiff. The inside is sometimes an entirely different color than the outside & really effs up a wedding palette when the flowers open in a hot tent. (I am looking at YOU Salmon Impression. You are my nemesis. You are a peachy blush on the outside, but you are very hot pink inside. When you open, you have the subtlety of Paris Hilton's 2003 velour Juicy Couture tracksuit. UG.)

But here I am at the end of this tulip rant about to tell you that I tried a new tulip this year, and I love it! It's Vovos. It's stems are very (some might say shockingly) short, but I don't care. You can judge its beauty for yourself, but for me, Vovos can join Belle Epoques on my list of tulips that are so beautiful they melt even my icy heart.

Everything in this arrangement is actually from the garden, which makes me so happy. But it's not just the garden that is back. Our local flower farms are finally back in action too! I picked up flowers just for funsies because my best friend was visiting. We made flower arrangements & drank rose, and it was so nice to slow down for just a moment to just enjoy the flowers. With the exception of the hellebores, everything in the arrangement I made is from the farms in our local Hudson Valley Collective.

The one wholesaler I was still buying from occasionally is eliminating their wholesale operations this year. So that means the only non-local products I am still sourcing are garden roses & smilax. (Both are still from the US, but not local.) Honestly, if it wasn't for smilax from the south, I think I could be at 100% locally grown, which is sort of thrilling. I've been sourcing about 80% of our product locally for the last few years. It would be amazing to move to all local.

APRIL GARDEN CHECK IN

Anyway, on to the regular feature — garden jobs check in. As a reminder, last month I said I would:

(1) Bump Up Seedlings ✓ — Did this! Nothing is in seed starting trays. It took literally all month, even though it was only like 100 seedlings, but I did it!

(2) Transplant Cold Hardy Seedlings ✓ — Sorta. My violas were supposed to get planted 2 weeks ago, and that did not happen. But foxglove & forget-me-nots got planted!

(3) Raised Bed Construction ✓ — Actually YES. I can't believe this got done. It's been on my to-do list for ages. Last year we built this rock wall so we could level this ground for a veggie garden, and this month we finally built 2 raised beds! We're going to build 2 more beds, but there's a whole thing with replacing a window first. It's a long story, but my husband is on it. So far I've planted potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes in these beds.

(4) The Great Front Hill Terracing Project ✓ — Sorta. I take no credit for this, but my husband did clear like 90% of the weeds/invasive plants so we could measure out the terracing. So this project is waiting on me to lead the measuring/planning part of the next phase.

MAY GARDEN GOALS

Last(?) Round of Seedlings: I just started scabiosa fama white. I also want to start white nigella to try and get a later crop in August. And I want to do at least one more succession of corncockle towards the end of the month.

Plant Out Dahlias & Annuals: I would be shocked if we got another frost. It's literally hit 80 degrees multiple times already. So I think those babies are safe to go out. But this does mean I need to clear my raised beds of weeds and put down fresh compost. We'll get there, but if I am being honest with myself, not until after Mother's Day.

The Great Front Hill Terracing Project: This is back on the top of the to do list. I want to get this laid out, so we can get really thick layers of cardboard and mulch down before the weeds can come back. I know the taproots of those goddam sweet peas are still down there. We'll try to starve them out of light this year.

Mulching: Dirty work, but it looks so good when it's done. I'm putting fresh compost on the borders where things are planted because it's been a few years. And then I'm also mulching & laying down cardboard on the areas with intense weeds/invasives. Hopefully in a few years those areas will be safe to plant.

Thanks for reading!