Maackia 032: When in doubt, ask a spruce

I’m Nathan Langley and this is Maackia, a monthly newsletter on asking friends for help.

Don’t plant before May-long weekend. I knew I was taking a risk having my perennials delivered on the 14th. But the weather seemed promising! I knew that people in town were itching to get outside and do stuff in their gardens, particularly over the holiday weekend. Plus, I wanted to get my perennial store off to a running start (as silly as that is to say)!

Wouldn’t you know it, there was a frost warning for 3–4 nights after I accepted my first delivery. Luckily, I was able to finish making another five tables with the wood I had ordered. I ended up staging them in my garage overnight. The downside was having to move 600 perennials in and out every day until the temps rose again. My hands weren’t quite ready for that task!

If I had paid closer attention to the spruce in my yard, I would have avoided all the extra effort. I can’t remember where I learned this, but spruce are one of the last trees to leaf out in the spring. It takes a crazy amount of energy to produce their little bundle of needles, and they are very soft and delicate when they first emerge. They can’t afford to be wrong about the weather, and as a result, they pay close attention.

When my delivery arrived, the spruce buds hadn’t opened yet. They were swelling, but they hadn’t broken through their protective covering.

Fast-forward to this past weekend. There was a threat of frost again for Sudbury Sunday night. While I ultimately brought some recently purchased veggies inside the garage, I was not phased by leaving all of my perennials out. The risk was low, despite the ‘feels like’ temp being forecast to be around 0 degrees. The actual temp was still supposed to be 3 degrees or higher, and the perennials have been sitting outside for two solid weeks.

I knew I could rest easy. This time I checked in with my spruce and they said not to worry about it. They had already started waking up, and their new bundle of needles were well beyond their protective covering this time.

Speaking of asking for help, have you heard of this new thing called AI? I am very late to this new technology, despite being an early adopter for a lot of new products over the years. While the image generation stuff is neat, I didn’t see the benefit to it beyond a few niche cases. I certainly wasn’t interested in using it to do my writing (I like writing!).

It’s safe to say that my initial impression of AI was wrong. I’ve been using Claude a lot since launching my perennial store and I am amazed at how fast it can analyze documentation and collate information for you. Even better, Claude likes to ask questions at the end of each prompt, which has led me into some very interesting directions that I hadn’t thought about.

Have I run into ‘hallucinations’? Yes. Does it make mistakes? More than you would think. But my key take away from using it over the last few weeks is that it is more of an intern at work than a seasoned professional. You still need to know what you are doing so that you can spot the inevitable issues or errors it comes up with.

But the time-saving nature of it is impressive. As is its ability to search the internet. I have found it much more useful than going to Google. I can’t find anything on there anymore.

(Quick side note: if you find yourself searching the internet like the olden days, check out Kagi)

Funnily enough, I still find myself reaching for certain books when I want to look up plant related info. Particularly, the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants by Michael Dirr. It is a bit overkill for the home gardener, but I find myself reaching for it if I ever have a question about a specific tree or shrub. The stuff I find on the internet is too ‘fuzzy’ for lack of a better term.

Dirr tried to translate his information into an app when I was teaching at the University of Guelph. It quickly became outdated, and I don’t think they tried again. It seems silly to have all of that useful information locked behind a $100+ CAD hardcover tome.

Which leads me to a question: do we have a resource in Canada like Dirr that gardens specifically in our climates? I have some old used copies of Lois Hole’s books, but not much else. I guess Lorraine Johnson has some Canadian themed books too, but they are more focused on native plants and that style of gardening.

Do you have any recommendations?

All in all, the last month has been humbling. In a good way.

And with the return of the bugs, and the visible new needles on the spruce trees, I set my sights on more fundamentals in the month ahead.

Lots of digging, weeding, planting, and mowing.

n