March Gardens Dream of the Spring

 

Every Garden Needs a Cat

    
        In the middle of the winter, when the days are short and the air is chilly, I have little desire to garden. Everything has been cut back, cleaned up and pruned, and the plants look stark, hopeless, and a little sad.

                Right around Mid-February and March, we begin to have more sunlight, the rain-barrels fill with rain, and the temperature becomes deceptively warm.  

                Suddenly, something deep inside me starts wanting to work in the garden again. I can usually tell this is happening because I start to sing, “Wick” from The Secret Garden to anyone who will listen. 

The Clean Iris Bed- Ready for new Growth! 

Culled Irises- Do you need any? 

This week my family has been working to clean out the iris beds (a job that hasn’t been done in years!), and planting sunflowers.

The Sunflower Bed

Only one narcissus bloomed this February, so we are moving the other bulbs to an empty garden bed where they might just flower more next winter.  

We leave the yellow daffodils undisturbed. One early daffodil has already opened its petals to the sunlight.

My children each want their own fairy garden now, even the 4-year-old. Each of them has a specific area that is theirs to decorate, dig in, and furnish with fairy houses and furniture. If they do not each have their own area....conflicts will occur! 

The garden still looks very stark, and the grape arbor is bare of leaves under the grey sky. 

The garden is still half-asleep, dreaming of longer days, buds, flowers, bees, and green young growth. The garden reminds me that we all must go through seasons of waiting- seasons of cold, of darkness, of rest. Winter is not just for the earth, it's for people, too. 

              It may look stark now, but give it all a few months, and by May and June, the garden will awaken- it will grow, it will bud, and it will look magnificent! 

And if it doesn’t…well, there is always next year.        

                What about you? Do you have a “bit of earth,” that calls to you each spring? Is it calling to you yet? Have you answered?