Launching Spring!!
It started as I was sitting in my sunroom, sipping coffee, only half awake. I heard the sweetest sound - which at first I mistook for my husband's whistling - he really does whistle extraordinarily well. But then I caught a flash of red out of the corner of my eye and looked out to see a cardinal, perched on a yew branch and staring saucily back at me. The sun was out - an unusual sight these days - most of which have looked so gray they were positively Scandinavian.
And so I knew - it was time to launch the gardening season.
Most years I await this with such intense eagerness that I show up at nurseries to see what's new before they have even begun to set out the plants. This year, for the first time, my eagerness was tempered with anxiety.
Spring cleanup is always a struggle. Autumns have always left me so tied up in the new school year that I didn't have time to cut things down or pull up the dead annuals. I tell my husband that there's a method to my madness. In spring, I will be so eager to fly out the door and get my hands dirty that I will greet matted leaves and dessicated skeletons of plants with glee - work that I can do even while it's too cold and soggy to plant.
Of course having to work around my school schedule each spring made me realize that this, too, is madness. I should have compromised in fall and done half the work, so I wouldn't be so overwhelmed each spring.
This spring, however, there is no teaching job to interfere with my garden time. But this year I no longer have the health, strength and energy that I have brought to previous seasons.
So it was with some trepidation that I walked outside to see what work lies ahead of me.
It was almost enough to make me turn around, go back in and lock the door, saying "What garden? I don't know anything about any garden!"
But, of course, I can't do that. I refuse to not be able to garden.
So out I marched again to survey the damage.
Piles of leaves, both shredded and the whole ones that blew in from the street - all needing to be raked out of the beds. Little (and quickly spreading) patches of green - weeds in need of instant decapitation. The 'Abraham Darby' has spread a couple of branches out so far that they threaten the eyesight of anyone trying to walk under the arbor. There are tons of roses to be pruned, as well as cherry trees. The topiary needs a haircut. And all around me are piles of decaying foliage - last summers leftovers.
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