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Little Miracles in the Spring Garden

© Carol Wallace

If you could peek into the yards of most gardeners this week you would see an interesting sight. Grown people walking very slowly around the yard - covering what should be a sixty second walk in half an hour. Eyes firmly fastened on the ground they take a step, stop, and peer, mutter a bit and take another step.

Suddenly you see them shaking their head as if angered, and take another, firmer step. And then they stop and stoop. And the head is thrown back in a short burst of happy laughter. The clenched fist of victory rises in the air and they shout for all and sundry to hear, "YES!"

And this goes on for days.

A non-gardener, following in their wake would be no wiser peering at the ground then they were watching from a distance. The spot that seemed to provoke anger is empty. Nothing to see, much less to upset. The first long stop is at something that could be dirt, but where you can faintly see a bit of something red, almost poking through. And the yes?? That one is the most mysterious of all. A three inch high, bitten down twig with one tiny leaf at the bottom. What about this pitiful and bedraggled specimen of plant life could possibly evoke such joy in the gardener?

That pitiful scrap, which is in my yard, was once a beautiful but young Salix intrica 'Hakuro Hishiki'. I planted it with care, watered it faithfully - and when winter came the deer went out and pruned it to within three inches of its life. But that summer it started to grow again. The same happened the following year, and again this year. And every year that little plant is so determined to live that it just keeps on keeping on. "The Little Willow that Could." Could anything be more convincing evidence that plants really do want to live?

For gardeners, these springtime walks are like a party where we greet old friends and ask how they are - once in a while pausing to regret a few who have since departed to that great compost bin in the sky.

Sometimes the departure is all too untimely - like the Geranium 'Chocolate Candy' that I planted mere weeks ago but which apparently decided to roll over and play dead. The sight of that bare earth is what provokes the pitiful shakes of the head.

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