by GardenGal
I’ll tell you what it is for me. It’s the joy of seeing old friends coming back. Not to mention the joy of finding if last year's additions made it through the winter. I go from spot to spot daily. Who’s up? What all did I add last year? Where did I put that new Hosta? Did that new ground cover bloom in ‘BLUE’ as advertised? I scan the yard for any signs of color. They’re here!! Purple, white, pink, coral, and yellow delicate petals start to unfold.
I catch myself moving mulch around
to find out if it will be much longer for the late arrivals. I find
their rosy tips reaching up, smile and cover them. This is Spring to me,
my friends coming back. They bloom, (say hello) multiply, (have babies)
scent the air (sing music for my heart) and they MOTIVATE me to do
more. I have the regular type of forsythia. My only local gardening pal gave me four sticks with a few roots going on three years ago. She had started them from her bush. I planted them and three made it. They only had three to four flowers on them last year but they made it!!
Here's what they would have looked like if I hadn't kept trying to dig them up! Yes, it's true, I was a wicked step-gardener! But I have learned, and continue to learn every day. As I work my patch of ground, I discover a new joy of growing every day.
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Do
I yearn for warmer weather as a reason to be outside? Am I trapped
inside due to lack of bloom? No, the weather outside has been quite
warm. I could be out there now as there are hours of clean up work to be
done and the pansies are blooming to beat the band. WHAT is missing?
When
he comes home from work, I drag my husband to see them (some of them for
3 years in a row now!) I chatter "remember this, remember that,
remember when, remember how...?" I can’t help myself, even though
I know he couldn’t have forgotten in 4 short years?
When
a late freeze is forecast, I rush to wrap my friends in blankets. (I
found out the hard way my 2nd year that my azaleas and hydrangeas on the
North side of my house can't handle the cold any better than I.) Then I
must make sure they are uncovered before the heat of the next day harms
them.
Who
could have too many friends? Here are some more pictures of some of my
friends.
Then
there were the years I spent digging up what I thought was a wild onion.
It turned out to be a beautiful flowering Allium. Here's what they would
have looked like if I hadn't pulled them out.