The Horse Chestnut

Journal Entry No. 2
Spring's Last Hurrah

I am well aware that summer begins on June 21st but it's never really regarded that way around here. Ask anyone and they will tell you that summer starts when the unbearable humidity descends upon us. You know it has arrived when your skin becomes clammy and sticky, it's harder to breathe outside, and the skyline becomes a fuzzy haze indistinguishable from its surroundings. Precisely when that humidity will arrive varies with each passing year. Some years are better than others. I remember a few years ago we had a spring that was so cold it kept the lakes from warming completely and no one could swim in the summertime! Last year was a hot one, I recall sitting on my deck in March wearing a summer dress and conversing with my family about their plans to open up their trailer. All of my plants grew like wildfire, early wood squill, tulips earlier still. It made this year feel sluggish and underwhelming by comparison, but I'm happy that I get to enjoy my plants for longer which is sometimes the benefit of a cooler spring season. Sadly that cool refreshing weather may be coming to an end, we are now reaching the high twenties and humidex readings are into the thirties. The air feels heavy. I can sense June approaching.

A hot air mass passed through on the long weekend bringing tumultuous weather into the region. A derecho (an intense windstorm) swept across southern Ontario and into Quebec, leaving a host of uprooted trees and power outages in its wake. We were fortunate in that only a small portion of our city suffered any significant damage. My husband and I had been out shopping on the day of the storm. When I returned home I dutifully inspected our garden to make sure none of the towering pines or oak trees had collapsed. I was pleasantly surprised to find hardly anything at all. Even my black tulips were still standing proud as ever. It appeared that we narrowly missed the hurricane-like winds by only a few city blocks. It's kind of unreal to think it came that close but there is literally no trace of it in my neighborhood. We were without power for maybe only three hours, my husband and I passed the time by watching movies on the laptop and playing games. It reminded me of being a child again, storms were always such curious and exciting experiences.

We aren't out of the woods yet, mind you, there's still plenty of time for more late spring storms to come. I was grateful to see that my blooming horse chestnut remained unscathed after the derecho. It has flowered tremendously and I can't take my eyes off of it. It is one of my most anticipated flowers of all spring, but sadly it's also the signifier that spring is coming to an end because it tends to bloom in late May and dwindle in the beginning of June. We are right on schedule. There's already pink confetti scattered on the lawn. I don't know where the time goes.

I have tried to capture our beautiful horse chestnut in its entirety but it is one of the most difficult trees to photograph. Not that it isn't full or large, it's as big as the house! But it moves constantly and there isn't enough contrast between the dark palmate leaves and saturated magenta flower cones to distinguish itself from its surroundings. It's funny how some of the most exquisite sights in the garden are usually the most difficult to portray accurately in photographs. Reds and pinks are terrible for that, they always appear lack luster in photos.

Take this photo of one of Martha Stewart's horse chestnuts, it's the same variety as ours, in fact it looks to be the same size. You can see how prolifically her tree blooms but the pink blossoms are actually a thousand times more vibrant than they appear in this picture. Horse chestnut foliage is a deep, almost blue green, because of the contrast that exists between the leaves and the flower cones the flowers appear red at a distance. That's colour theory playing with your eyes. When you see the blossoms up close you will find that there are several shades of tropical pink, orange and yellow within them. If you have not had the pleasure of seeing a horse chestnut in person I encourage you to do so when the opportunity presents itself, you will not be disappointed!

Other than drinking in the beauty of my horse chestnut, I have been spending a lot of my spare time in the courtyard garden reading. I'm reading several gardening books at the moment. It's helping to keep me occupied while I anxiously wait for my annual seedlings to grow. I will write more about my foray into annuals later, but the gist is that I've planted hundreds of seeds in the garden and everyday I find them dug up, shredded or eaten. I have continuously struggled to keep the rodents here at bay, it's become the bane of my existence. I tried wrapping my containers in an outdoor garden mesh, which worked for a bit but then some small mouse has managed to eat my Moonflowers, so I wrapped it in even more mesh! The annuals that I planted in the ground have been protected by various recycled container lids, clear fruit cups, and a single glass cloche that I hope to hell will give my Teddy Sunflowers a fighting chance. Most recently I learned about snails and their preference for tender seedlings. I read that they hate egg shells. I had the unpleasant task of combing through my compost bin and pulling out this year's Easter eggs, then crumbling them and scattering them like mulch into the bed. It looks hideous but it's temporary, I have to wait for the plants to establish themselves. Apparently some animal didn't think too highly of my gesture and decided to take a dump on the egg shells, but so far things are looking better than they did (minus the scat).

I have many projects to tackle in the coming weeks and I look forward to cataloguing them here. Until next time,

Happy Gardening!