Note the beautiful reflection of overhead cottonwoods and oaks in the shallow pool here in our Japanese garden. The problem here is that this is supposed to be a dry sea with raked gravel (simulating waves). The pond level should be 30" lower than this! I've never seen flooding up this high and it continues to rise. It is important to mention that this picture is from Wednesday, before we had a mini-typhoon the past 24 hours. April showers do bring May flowers. They'll also bring lots of work repairing paths and dealing with the after effects of these issues. In the grand scheme of things, I shouldn't even be complaining as this is a negligible issue when compared to more serious flooding around the nation and the continued after effects of Katrina and other past natural disasters. It's scary that the National Weather Service is predicting a lively hurricane season this year....
We're doing a lot of pruning this time of year as our window of opportunity begins to diminish. We like to accomplish most of our pruning during the winter and finish by the end of April. This time of year we can really examine branch patterns and potential issues with deciduous woody plants and we like to do structural pruning on our conifers as well. I enjoyed seeing our golden Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana 'Wates Golden') with it's bright spring needle coloration. It will fade to a chartreuse in our hot summer but is hardy and can tolerate the poor soils in which it is planted. I can't stress enough the importance of conifers in our landscapes. I'm not talking about the ubiquitous yews and/or junipers around everyone's foundation, but the more interesting conifers used for color and form. Look in to it! We're about two weeks from seeing daffodils (Narcissus) peak blooms at the gardens (although some have already started in those "hot spots").
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