Gardeners enjoy the first ‘to do’ list of the season

On the first blue-sky Saturday morning of spring, I said to Marjorie, “What I want is to take the first cup of coffee into the garden, walk around, talk about the coming year.” It seemed like a month of Sundays since we had done this. She said yes and there we were, each clutching a hot cup with both hands, staring at a Katsuratree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) beginning its fourth spring in Marjorie’s garden, three years after we had transplanted it.

This spring marks the end of the establishment period for the tree. For three years we resisted removing any branches except for the dead and wounded, leaving as much foliage as possible to nourish developing roots. Now we discussed how we should shape this tree, decided which of the crowded limbs would go and which would stay as scaffold branches. Before the weekend was over, Marjorie would be back at the tree with pruners and saw.

We walked to the end of the drive with Dixie and Reilly, playing fetch with an old knotted rope until the dogs tired of the game and followed their noses into the woods. Along the way we examined every tree, every shrub, looking for signs of winter damage. There was little. We smiled as we inspected a redbud tree that nearly died two winters ago – no dieback this year and a few flower buds swelling along its stems.

I found viburnum leaf beetle egg casings on the stem of a mapleleaf viburnum and added a thorough inspection of all the garden’s viburnums to our weekend schedule. Sunday evening we threw a handful of viburnum tip cuttings into the wood stove. Most of them came from a single wild raisin (Viburnum nudum cassinoides) that Marjorie has been training as a small tree. This species seems to be the beetle’s favorite host in the Ellsworth area, both in the wild and in gardens. Diligent inspection and removal of stem tips with egg casings is the best hope for preventing the devastation caused by this non-native pest. And it is worth the effort – I cannot imagine a garden without native viburnums.

We spent the second cup of coffee planning a new, taller trellis for the purple raspberries, inventing schemes to support 10-foot-tall posts in 6 inches of soil covering ledge. I won’t go into the solution here, just in case it doesn’t work. I keep thinking about harvesting raspberries from a ladder.

We talked about moving two winterberry hollies that had languished since planting in too much shade at the back of the garden. Where could we transplant them? We discussed the options with a sense of urgency, knowing this needed doing before the leaves emerged.

Empty coffee cups left behind, we strolled through the raised beds, adding to our mental lists, making plans. Remove the mulch of shredded leaves covering the strawberries and use floating row covers this year to keep the mice and leaf beetles from eating the berries. Which bed will we use for the sweet peas? Where does Marjorie plan to plant the new peach tree? And do I really want to grow vegetables, or would I rather spend my Saturday mornings at the Blue Hill Farmers Market?

This is the best way to see yourself into the gardening year: a sunny morning walk, coffee in hand. Soon it will be summer and every day can begin this way, the list endless.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to

reesermanley@ptc-me.net. Include name, address and

telephone number.