The first green growth peeking out of winter foliage always lifts my spirit that growing things and signs of spring are just around the corner. It’s in my East Coast upbringing that by April, yards are lush with budding trees and bushes with vibrant blooms from landscaped gardens. Wyoming is different with the land not truly waking and stretching until later.
The winter has felt unreasonably long this year due to work keeping my focus for longer work days with more challenging deliverables across many time zones from my home office here. As the weeks have worn on, I’ve found myself eyeing the dark windows in the mornings and evenings, wishing to see the beginnings of spring to see some element of change on the horizon.
With that in mind, it surprised me recently to see our rock garden already with hardy succulents and tundra plantings sending out green colors and new leaves. It does something for the spirit to finally see the beginnings of growth again.
Many of these were sprouts were the beginnings of roots that we tucked into the crevices of rocks and soil wondering just how much of our first foray into rock gardening would take. We hoped that half of the plants we purchased and planted would take, but so far, only 2-3 have been lost – not bad for our first try with these types of plants.
The clear winner of durability and hardiness so far has definitely been the ice plants purchased at an annual master gardeners community plant sale. Those little plants, per their names, seem to be able to tolerate all forms of winter and still come out swinging.
It’s encouraging to see the original plants still hanging in there, but even more so starting new shoots and buds from within. Things are definitely stirring under the soil!
The Wyoming winter is definitely not done with us yet, even here in mid-April. The threat of snow and freezing temperatures likely won’t pass until end of May. But as these tough guys are proving, they’re thriving despite the blizzard that just passed through last week. Yes, they’ll do just fine here.
I’ve already got the next local plant sale on my calendar to add to our expanding landscaping. Just the idea of picking out more plants and doing more with our relatively new property is a pick-me-up that the cold and gray winter is soon to give way to sun and warm temperatures soon.
Life by Lens and Laptop 