The Return Of Spring - Cleaning Up My Garden
Every year I look forward to spring. I can’t wait to see my perennial plants, like old friends, pop their heads through the snow, still lingering in my garden. I go out dressed in my old Parka, scarf, boots and gloves, looking like I was going to the Arctic, instead of my own back yard. Then, after my euphoria wears off, I realize how much work I have to do. Old stems of plants that have rotted need to be moved. Leaves need to be gently cleared from my perennials. Deadwood must be cut from my shrubs and fallen limbs from the trees have to be cleared. There is always the fear that I may have lost some of my plants during the snow and frost and like a child, I am filled with elation when I see them one by one appear, poking their heads through the soil.
Many shrubs get broken by the roadside with the weight of the snow and the salt from the snow ploughs. This also takes its toll on the lawn, but oh, how I revel in it!! I imagine all the things that I am going to achieve this spring (same things I was going to achieve last spring!) but this year I will do it. I will find all the bits of paper that I have stuffed in my pockets in my gardening coat giving me advice that I forgot to take, old packets of seeds that I was going to plant but never got round to it, and I will sit down with a cup of coffee and peruse this year’s plant catalogues for all the new varieties which of course, I must have.
Spring, wonderful spring! Eternal hope for life, bringing with it the promise of wonderful summer days to come; the joy and anticipation of hot sunny days; barbecues, swimming, cycling in the park, and all the family get-togethers to look forward to. Meanwhile I will get out my old wheelbarrow, that has seen better days and proceed to get my feet all muddy with soil, break my back bending to dig up weeds, and peer into the ground to see if any of the grass seed I sowed last year is emerging.
I often think that it would be nice to live in a climate that had sunshine all year round and all the chores that I would not have to do. I could just laze around and watch the grass grow, sipping on my ice cold lemonade. Then, reality sets in and I know that I would miss the changing of the seasons, the fall colors, the snow at Christmas (and the scraping of my windshield!) and the promise of spring.
For those of us who live in colder regions, I have one complaint: winter seems so long and spring and summer seem so short! Is this just my imagination or are we getting short changed?
March 29th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I agree with you that winters seem to long and spring is always to short of a season. Spring is when Mother Nature springs everything to life and the outdoors smell so fresh.