 March
- April & May
Gardens possess great healing powers
Though planted
with the simplest flowers.
For in our gardens we can find
Food, both for body and for mind -
And busy hours within them spent
Bring a rich harvest of content.
_Elsie Campbell
Spring has arrived in our garden! Longer, warmer
days bring beauties to delight the senses. Tulips and daffodils nod in
soft, gentle breezes. Huge black carpenter bees bumble through the golden
stamen of the iceland poppies, weighing down the delicate flowers with
their bulk.
 An itinerant flock of Bohemian Waxwings has adopted our bird bath
and settles in a flashing, yellow, swarm several times a day to drink.
The air is filled with the spring songs of the purple finches and robins.
My favorite sound in all of the world is the dawn song of a robin...
unless perhaps, his evening worship may be slightly more sweet. And the
courting flight of a pair of red-tailed hawks above the meadow takes
my spirit soaring with them.
The peach tree is beginning to blossom and
the wind scatters a flurry of white petals from the hawthorn along the
paths. Johnny-jump-ups run riot through all the beds as if to announce "It's
here. It's finally here!" The herb beds are bursting with chives, curly parsley, sweet marjoram
and several varieties of thyme. The lemon verbena and lemon balm are
beginning to flourish, too. Sweet, lemon, cinnamon and purple basil,
two varieties of dill and edible nasturtiums are ready to be set out.
Oh, how exciting to plan meals around their fresh flavors. Across the
path our tomatoes and peppers are in and growing. There are green onions,
radishes and carrots promising bounty for the salad bowl. Snow peas,
pole beans and even a few hills of corn are peeking through the earth.
On the other hand, some mornings the meadow across the lane still stands
shoulder high in mist and a warm sweater feels very comforting against
the chill. We'll relish this season while we can, because by late April
or early May mornings will bring temperatures in the 80's. Can summer
be far behind?
| How To Plant A Garden |
Plant three rows of peas:
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul.
Plant four rows of squash:
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness.
Plant four rows of lettuce:
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be obedient
Lettuce really love one another. |
No garden is complete without turnips:
Turnip for meetings
Turnip for service
Turnip to help one another.
Water freely with patience
and cultivate with love.
There is much fruit in your garden
Because you reap what you sow.
To conclude our garden
we must have thyme:
Thyme for reflection
Thyme for study
Thyme for prayer |
 In
March - our world continues to blossom. While much of the US is
blanketed in winter snows, our garden is blanketed in a snowfall of
flower
petals.
A soft rain or gentle breeze scatters them over the paths and leaves
in drifts.
By mid-March the citrus blossoms. The Meyer Lemon under my studio
window gives off the most amazing fragrance. Taking a drive through the
orchards is a traditional gardener's delight, and there is no adequate
description of the beauty available on every hand. Talk about blessings!
February and March may be alternately winter and spring, day by day here.
The trick is to keep a stack of favorite gardening books and seed catalogs
on hand as well as your rake, hoe and pruning shears. That way you can
be prepared, whatever the weather.
The really wonderful thing about spring gardening is, unlike demanding
summer, tasks can be put off until you have time to do them.  In
April - the garden gives us flowers.
"Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close Bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run."
 John
Keats (1795-1821)
In May - The word May is a perfumed word.
It is an illuminated initial.
It means youth, love, song,
and all that is beautiful in life.
_ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Journal"
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