What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Use this forum to discuss hardy perennials and bulbs. Full shade plants should go in the shade gardening forum.

Moderator: Chris_W

User avatar
Chris_W
Administrator
Posts: 8465
Joined: Oct 05, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 9
Location: Co. Roscommon, Ireland
Contact:

What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Chris_W »

I know that in some parts of the country the record snowfall will make for a miserable mud season (also known as spring). I'm never really ready for the mud, but I do have some old shoes ready to get dirty!

This spring I am most looking forward to seeing the double bloodroot that Mary gave us a few years ago. It has the most amazing flowers I've ever seen, but alas, they last one or two days. This year I vow to get a picture! I'm also looking forward to seeing the jack in the pulpits.

What are you looking forward to seeing this mud season?
Image
govgirl75
Posts: 660
Joined: Jun 24, 2008 12:33 pm
USDA Zone: 5
Location: OH

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by govgirl75 »

Fiddleheads for me. I have a few kinds of ferns and each of them has a different fiddlehead. They fascinate me and I always look forward to seeing them.
Gloria
User avatar
Spider
Posts: 1612
Joined: May 27, 2007 1:40 pm
USDA Zone: 9A
Location: Tampa, FL

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Spider »

I always looked forward to the crocus and daffafdills and the haze of green when you looked out over a landscape of trees. I also looked forward to the sounds of songbirds.
Spider's Hosta List There are photos there too :)

"I gotta have more cowbell!" SNL

"If your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction."

"If you don't talk to your cat about catnip...who will?"
User avatar
Chris_W
Administrator
Posts: 8465
Joined: Oct 05, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 9
Location: Co. Roscommon, Ireland
Contact:

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Chris_W »

I hadn't thought about sounds, but the sounds of frogs are always welcoming to me too :D
Image
party_music50
Posts: 777
Joined: Jun 29, 2006 9:03 pm
USDA Zone: z5
Location: Central NY

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by party_music50 »

We live in a valley that lies SE of the Great Lakes and typically get tons of snow and very little sun during winter. I've read that we are historically rated 2nd in the country for getting the least amount of sun in the month of February.

I'm looking forward to being OUTDOORS again! and seeing some SUN!!!! in the garden or on the golf course. :beer:
~~~ Audrey ~~~
“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good”
Dr. Seuss :)
User avatar
viktoria
Posts: 2460
Joined: Oct 17, 2001 8:00 pm
Contact:

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by viktoria »

Can't wait to see how many flowers this will have:
Attachments
TrilliumgDBL.JPG
Many a great tune has been played on an older fiddle.
Linda P
Posts: 6212
Joined: Oct 15, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: N W Illinois, zone 5

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Linda P »

Mud season....one of the reasons that I always hesitate when someone asks what my favorite season is. It would typically be spring, but then the thought of the mud appears in my mind, and I usually say 'autumn' as a reflex reaction. The mud here on the farm can be a real challenge.
Once I get past the dread of the mud, there is so much to anticipate. I love to hear the redwing blackbirds trilling when they make their appearance, which is typically a litlte earlier than the robins. I always look forward to the bloodroot, though I don't have the double variety. We have them growing on a part of the farm, and I moved some to the yard years ago. Now I have a couple of nice patches of them. When the virginia bluebells (mertensia virginica) bloom, then I know it's really spring. Sometimes the daffodils lie. :lol:
Linda P
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Latitude: 41° 51' 12.1572"


My Hosta List
User avatar
Ginger
Posts: 3097
Joined: Jun 15, 2004 12:13 pm
USDA Zone: Zone 7
Location: Luther Oklahoma, Lat: 35* 35' 23.5284

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Ginger »

New leaves on the trees, hosta eyes popping up, spotted fawns, hawks soaring overhead, the smell of spring, the SUN!!!
I have to say, this Saturday was the perfect spring like day in OK. Temps were up around 65, there was no wind to speak of and the ground was dry :beer: :beer: I stayed outside ALL day long, it was wonderful :D

G
Did I mention I grow my Hosta in pots?
plantaholic
Posts: 75
Joined: Sep 04, 2009 3:12 pm
USDA Zone: 5

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by plantaholic »

Offers showing up in the mailbox, that's what
i look forward to.

For example,I received Schreiner's 2010 catalogue a few days ago showing
this beauty as its cover girl.

Image

TB Twilight Rapture

It's available for a measly $75.00. The temptation to be the first on the
block to have one is tough, let me tell ya.
User avatar
kaylyred
Posts: 533
Joined: Mar 08, 2010 1:50 pm
USDA Zone: 5a
Location: Wisconsin, Zone 5a
Contact:

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by kaylyred »

Chris_W wrote:I hadn't thought about sounds, but the sounds of frogs are always welcoming to me too :D
I have a funny story about frog singing. My husband and I took a spring vacation to a secluded spot in Door County, WI (the "thumb" of Wisconsin's mitten shape). We are accustomed to small town life--streetlights, occasional traffic sounds, etc. We're certainly not urban dwellers, but we're not really woodsy people, either.

Up in Door County, however, we were in a very quiet place with a large patch of woods and a small boggy pond right behind our cabin. We were enjoying the seclusion, but we were surprised by just how dark it was without a streetlight to be found, nor a car to be heard. Still, it wasn't quiet by any stretch. The frogs in the bog were singing a full-on Hallelujah Chorus, so we decided to throw open the patio doors and listen to them as we went to sleep.

They were incredibly loud. Almost too loud. But we kept lying there in the blackness telling ourselves, and one another, how much we were enjoying the sounds of nature.

Then, suddenly, the frogs just...stopped...singing. The silence was deafening. And eerie. And the darkness was total.

I stiffened, and I felt my husband tense beside me in bed, too. And then I heard his voice, small and quavering, say, "Why did the little frogs stop singing....?"

I replied, "I don't know, but it's feakingmeout!"

We ended up closing the patio door, digging a fan out of the closet and turning it on to drown out the noise, and leaving a small light on in the kitchen. We never figured out why the frogs stopped singing (and one by one they started up again), but I was envisioning something out of a Stephen King novel and my husband was sure he'd see lights from an alien spacecraft any minute. Of course, it was probably a deer or something tramping through the woods that caused them to pause.

So, what am I looking forward to this spring? Hosta eyes. Seeing my first-year woodland plants and other perennials become second-year plants. Watching the daffodils bloom. Listening to birds singing.

And even enjoying frog song...from a safe distance.
~ Karen

Check out Petiole Junction, my gardening blog!
See my little hosta list
I've also got a garden photo gallery.
Tabby
Posts: 28
Joined: Jun 28, 2009 10:01 am
USDA Zone: 4a
Location: Ontario
Contact:

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Tabby »

Hi Chris et al,

In my area of Ontario, we seem to be skipping the mud season and going right to spring! (But all that could change.) My favourite part about this time of year is the daily inspections on the garden to see what is coming up. I have crocuses, daffodils and muscari poking up in my sunnier spots.

Another thing I really look forward to is the sounds of the geese coming back and the frogs!

All the best, Diane
"God made rainy days so gardeners could get their housework done."
User avatar
JaneG
Posts: 4235
Joined: Oct 16, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 5
Location: Central Illinois, Zone 5

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by JaneG »

"Mud Season" :D I always called this "Ugly Time" . . . everything is brown, all the dead the foliage that was covered by snow in the winter is now exposed. Everything is mushy and muddy, tracking everywhere. Even worse, it's too early to get out there and start cleaning up because we are still likely to have frost/freeze nights. So we just have to put up with ugly for a while.

What do I look forward to?

-- Hearing the sound of birds in the morning! It happens so suddenly, just this week I noticed the chirping in the morning. Saw my first robins last week.

-- Walking around the yard a noticing new green sprouts. The tulips and iris grow a couple inches every day. Buds swelling on the magnolia.

-- Patches of lawn greening up!

-- Waving hello to neighbors and exercise walkers who are finally getting outside again.
JaneG
Start slowly . . . then taper off.
User avatar
Chris_W
Administrator
Posts: 8465
Joined: Oct 05, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 9
Location: Co. Roscommon, Ireland
Contact:

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Chris_W »

Viktoria, that double trillium is beautiful. Thanks for sharing that one!

And Diane, like you I think we have mostly bypassed mud season too. The frost came out of the ground much quicker than usual, so when we got our first spring rains it drained right through. Normally we have huge ruts in the driveway, yet when we had a semi-truck here the other day the driveway stayed put. Not that I'm still not tracking some dirt through the house (picture me as Pigpen most of the time) it isn't as bad as usual :)

The birds are definitely getting louder in the morning. This morning at 6am as I was leaving work I was amazed at the sound the birds were making. And the night before while leaving for work I could hear the frogs :D

Happy to see spring - yes I can call it spring now, since it isn't a normal mud season here.

Of course, now we can look forward to tick season :eek:
Image
User avatar
Tigger
Posts: 2727
Joined: Oct 14, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 6b - 7a
Location: SE Penna Zone 6b (7a?), lat. 39°50'
Contact:

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Tigger »

Now officially the wettest year on record here, so mud season is going to last a LONG time!
oldcoot
Posts: 3823
Joined: Jan 12, 2004 12:21 pm
USDA Zone: 8
Location: Rock Hill, S.C. USA

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by oldcoot »

Actually the mud had dried up in S.C. after a very WET early start. But, now with90+ days it has reaolly dried out. They are calling for rain tomorrow and this time we really need it.OC is looking for Dogwood Blloms and Iris. Thaat is about all he will have :D :D :D
There may be snow in the garden, but there will always be eternal springtime in the heart of this old gardner - Saying of Old Coot
User avatar
Spider
Posts: 1612
Joined: May 27, 2007 1:40 pm
USDA Zone: 9A
Location: Tampa, FL

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Spider »

Chris, when I was working horses and needed to step into the house for a minute I would tie grocery bags on my feet, get what I needed and take them off at the door before going back out. :) Looked like a fool, but it kept the mud off the floors and was faster then taking off the shoes and putting them back on. :)
Spider's Hosta List There are photos there too :)

"I gotta have more cowbell!" SNL

"If your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction."

"If you don't talk to your cat about catnip...who will?"
Linda P
Posts: 6212
Joined: Oct 15, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: N W Illinois, zone 5

Re: What are you looking forward to this mud season?

Post by Linda P »

Spider, what a good idea. I wish I could get DH to do that when he comes in from the cowbarn. He usually takes off his boots, but yesterday he came tromping in the deck door to give me the newspaper. He had the boots on...they were 'clean'....meaning he had shuffled through the grass to clean off the bottom. Stuff up the side doesn't count. :lol:
We've had a terribly long mud season this year. Our road has been closed since March 15, and should have been closed a week earlier.
Linda P
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Latitude: 41° 51' 12.1572"


My Hosta List
New Topic Post Reply