Time To Think About Spring Garden Season

By Holly Newby

         Spring has surely arrived in our area along with some much-needed rain this weekend. The wild plum trees are filled with white flowers as is the old pear tree in our yard. It popped out with a riot of white flowers over the past few days and is now humming with bees and even a few butterflies. The nectar from its flowers is flooding the whole side of the yard.
      We enjoyed seeing some pictures of Carol Warren’s Martin House gourds. The birds are a great thing to attract to your yard as they eat a lot of bugs. They are apparently fun to watch, too.
      Our friends in the Umatilla Garden Club are having a great time this year, meeting, learning, and going on field trips. Their next meeting is Saturday, March 16, at 10 a.m. They meet in the program room at the Umatilla Public Library.
   The Umatilla Public Library will be hosting the Master Gardener Program on Monday, March 18, at 2 p.m. with a special lesson on “Florida Friendly Landscaping”. See the front desk at the library for further information on that program.
   Noble Roots Farm has spring plant starts ready for the garden. They are open 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Sundays. They are located at 37927 CR 439.
      If you are interested in adding a wild plum tree to your landscape or homestead farm, there are two good ones to choose from. There is a Flatwood plum and a Chickasaw plum. They are both native to our area. They like sandy soil and they have beautiful white flowers in the spring. Both varieties put on small fruit, which is good for jelly if a bit small. They are very hardy and require little to no care once established. It is a small tree, less than 20 feet in height. It blooms in late winter and is always a harbinger of spring, blooming while many other plants are still dormant. These are great habitat plants providing nectar in winter and food for birds, squirrels, and raccoons as well as white-tailed deer. These are just the kind of trees that are being lost to the massive invasion of housing subdivisions in our area. Please consider planting one of these Florida natives if you can, they take little room. We took our pictures in Umatilla. These trees are often easy to spot along the edge of the forest this time of year. The pear tree photo was taken in our yard this morning.
   Thanks to Anne Rosecrans for the picture of her geraniums. They are very lovely.
   We hope you will share pictures of what you are growing. We all benefit from locally grown produce and fruit. Growing something is better than growing nothing.
       That's it for this week. Keep growing. Send your garden pictures via email; to: hollynewby1@aol.com or text to (352) 272-8257 with a description. You can also share to www.thenorthlakeoutpost.com/contactus.