Visions Of Daffodils Dance In My Head

Bloodroot along the trail

     The catalogs started arriving in January--full of enticing pictures of flowers and vegetables found only in a gardener's  dreams.  At the time, it was easy to flip thru the pages hastily and lay it on the shelf for later.  That was because there was several inches of snow covering the yard, with promises of more to come.  We had a blanket of snow on our yard and surrounding pastures for the whole month of February.  After a brief respite, we had the record 12-14 inche snowfall come down in one day--the first day of Spring 2010!   One doesn't get too excited about tending the garden under those conditions! 

     Then-- the snow melted, and the daffodils popped up (none the worse for spending a few days under the snow), the grass turned green in the pastures almost over night, the yellow belles (forsythia to me) burst into balls of yellow sunshine, red tulips appeared in the bed by the fence, little spring flowers of blue, yellow, and purple (some call them weeds) jumped up (that's why the call them 'Johnny Jumpups) all over the backyard, wildflowers littered the trails to the waterfall, and the garden centers brought out the blooms in full force! 

     I know better than to succumb to temptation this early in the spring.  The first year we lived on the mountain, I fell under their spell, and planted too early.  Which meant I had to watch the weather report then run out in the yard at dark to cover the tender plants in hopes of saving them from having to spend the night freezing to death (literally!). My friend, Debbie, who has her own greenhouse business will not let me buy her plants until late April or early May.  She tells folks, she doesn't have enough extras to sell them twice!  Home Depot in Harrison should have learned this lesson well.  They brought out the blooms in March, only to have them nipped in the bud by a hard frost!  I hear they had to start all over with everything. 

     However, planting fever has attacked my system!  I am still turning my head as I drive by the garden centers and greenhouses that spring up by the side of the road in Harrison.  But---Jack is mowing the yard for the first time as I write, my neighbor is tempting me with pass-along-plants from her garden, and, I confess, I bought some pansies yesterday! 

     So--- sun is shinning, the hummers are here, I saw a butterfly or two seaching for a bloom, the honeybees are buzzing, the bluebirds are checking out their boxes, the purple martins have arrived in force as confirmed by their familiar chatter that fills the air, and the weatherman is singing songs of sunny weather (like, really, does he have anything to do with providing good weather?).

     Okay, I give up!  It's too late to turn back!  I can't stand it!  I'm going outside and  get my hands dirty!

Happy Gardening to all!

 

His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring,

with plants springing up everywhere.

                                                Isaiah 61:11 NLT