Why is it that a pack full of seedlings is a thrilling thing and a carpet of seedlings in the garden is alarming? I once got in big trouble with a friend for bringing teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) seedlings to a plant swap because when they grow up they do this:

So do a lot of plants. I wonder if some gardeners’ preference for seedlings in packs is a control thing. We know how many we’ve sown and despite it being more time consuming to carefully transplant these guys, we’ve got a grip on them, so to speak. Now, I would definitely qualify as a control freak – I generally prefer to be in the driver’s seat. But when it comes to seeds and seedlings, I’d much rather ride shotgun. It’s so much more relaxing. With self-sowers I never have to worry about timing. They come up when they come up. I don’t have to fret about their care because they’re fine on their own. And I can still take over the wheel by weeding out the ones I don’t want and carefully transplanting any that didn’t fall where they should have. What isn’t awesome about that?

Teasel seedlings are especially easy. Because they’re biennial, we have a whole summer to decide where we want them. We can leave their carpet as an excellent weed barrier, at least until the garden grows up around them, and then allow a select few to winter over wherever we think we might want next year’s towers. And we even have time now to move 2nd year seedlings if their placement isn’t just right. (Because of their tap root, we have to dig deep).

We’ve been doing that a lot with another biennial, forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica), and I have big plans for the extra love-in-mist (Nigella damascena) seedlings in the cutting garden. Pretty soon we’ll have self-sowers spread out in the garden enough that they’ll always come up where we want them. All we’ll have to do after that is remove the ones that are “too many”. Easy. (Or is that what some of us don’t like to do? It can be awfully heart-wrenching to compost a healthy plant…)

Speaking of carpets, I can’t let a Daffodil Days post go by without saying how beautiful they still are. Still peaking. And meanwhile the tulips are starting to open and the cherry trees are gorgeous. It keeps getting prettier and prettier. (And I’m not just saying that because I want you to visit.)

Do you find seedling carpets a little bit scary or are you thrilled to see plants come back gangbusters? Can you thin and edit the seedlings without cringing?

Evidently some plants didn’t quit growing over the winter. I can understand why most gardeners prefer to corral their herbs in pots. I’m not a huge fan of that trick because they seem to hate captivity. It never takes long for mint to plan its great escape, circling the edge of the pot and walking out – sometimes from underneath – when we’re not looking. I’d rather confine it to a corner and keep an eagle eye on it. Plus that saves me from ever having to water it.

But mint, beebalm, and oregano took advantage of my kindness this winter and did their level best to carpet the herb garden. I don’t blame them. It’s a nice garden with rich soil and if the lavender isn’t going to do well, then they might as well take over, right? If those plants were difficult to edit, we’d have been in deep trouble. But their rhizomes are shallow – only thickly matted where they’ve hit an edge and fairly easy to unzip and extricate right now from amongst other plants.  They certainly don’t mind being chopped to bits.

We staked our claim to the garden we wanted back and our newest Deadheads (Welcome, Pam, Helena, Michael! – and welcome back, April!)  removed all but the best pieces of each plant with cathartic and well-placed spade chops. I’m pretty sure they (and those herbs) will be back for more good garden fun. Do you plant your your mint in the ground or in pots – or in pots in the ground?

The weeds are a little bit ferocious this year too. Yesterday the Rockettes gave it their all to remove onion grass from the Rock Garden. It looks so sweet down there right now. The arabis is blooming away; the epimedium are just getting cute and Pasque flower is a ball of fuzz, nearly ready to pop open. We would like to think we got all of the weeds out of the way of plants that really deserve that space but a few might come back here and there to give us job security.

And in case you’re wondering, the daffodils are still at their best. If you haven’t come yet, what are you waiting for? — The cherry trees? They’re just starting to bloom now. Spring has definitely staked its claim too.

Spring always brings the fast-n-furious out in me. There’s so much that must get done and so much I want to do that I have a hard time organizing my thoughts, let alone my actions. But as much as I might panic and freak out (I do more of that at home) every once in a while I am reminded that spring won’t get ahead of me if I slow down and pay attention.

It’s only April and not only that, it’s early April. What’s my hurry? There’s time to divide and move plants. There’s time to weed. There’s time to enjoy spring as it unfurls. As a matter of fact, seasonally appropriate temperatures have slowed spring back down. The magnolias might have gotten ahead of themselves (our M. stellata is OK because it was planted in a cool shady spot and hasn’t opened all the way yet) but the daffodils will keep peaking probably through the week by the looks of forecast day and night temperatures. The cherry trees, winter hazel, and crabapples, which are all looking pretty close, should stay in a state of suspended animation. There’s plenty of time to take a deep breath and enjoy it.

As for dividing and moving plants, no doubt about it, now is a great time. But take your time. It’s easier – and easier on the plants – to do it as soon as possible before they’ve grown too much but if you promise to baby them, most perennials can be transplanted for a while yet and still bloom more or less on time.

We are trying to be very methodical as we move plants back into the North Garden. We’ll shoot for a couple-three carts-full a day, and are planning our plantings so we don’t do too much head scratching when we get there. We should have everything transplanted within a couple of weeks and we won’t kill ourselves doing it. That last bit is very important. The older we (I) get, the more prone to tweaked muscles we (I) get, particularly in spring and any injury slows us down a little too much.

Are you taking spring slow and steady or do you need the reminder like I do?