This time of year, especially on weekends, my mind melds with moist soil, with the earliest hints of life, the first hint of bud burst, earliest spring blossoms, seed sorting, plant plotting, spring start coddling,… Seasonal synapses begin to fire. I start to count weeks and days working backwards from probable last frost. And I start to dream forward into May and June when our early blooms, fruit, and vegetables will be ready to harvest; to July and August when colorful crops will feed us every day of the week; to September and October when we’ll celebrate abundance as if winter might never arrive. Euphoria of anticipation! In the annual reminder that life is a garden.
As snowdrops then crocus and hyacinth, and soon after dwarf iris and daffodils return, I experience a quick getting of my heartbeat. Levity and enthusiasm blossom in my breast. Ever since I was a child, the seasonal return to gardening has exhilarated me. Now, April is about to tiptoe in May, I know that time will quicken as temperatures rise. Dandelions and grass will vie for attention. Rhubarb and asparagus will awaken. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries will push out tender leaves. Grape vines will start to unfurl new tendrils and the orchard will burst into bloom. Any day!
Today’s patchwork quilt dispatch, gathers a few early glimpses of the vegetable garden from years past as well as a view of the high tunnel as it is set up today. And I’ve included a couple of spring precursor bulbus perennials (above) that I cultivated in our early days at Rosslyn that have petered out. Time to reintroduce them?
And in addition to these reinvigorating visions, I offer for your consideration several beaux mots that pertain to my bias above: life is a garden.
Life is a garden, not a road.We enter and exit through the same gate.Wandering, where we go matters less than what we notice.
— Kurt Vonnegut
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.
— Leonard Nimoy
Life is a little bit like a garden — you have to find time to plant the seeds for beautiful flowers to grow.
— Oscar de la Renta
Love is like a garden, it needs constant nurturing and care. You gotta tend to it daily, remove the weeds and repair.
Aerion Isidorro
Your life is your garden— Terry Prince
and your thoughts are your seeds,
so if your life isn’t awesome
you’ve been watering the weeds.
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