With our days reaching nearly 70 degrees since this past weekend, I find myself thinking of the gardens. I walk around the yard, daily, to watch the progress of the green shoots of daffodils and tulips, expecting to actually see them growing. They do not disappoint me. I examine the branches of the pink dogwood, and take note that the leaves are budding...still tiny and not yet ready to unfurl. But, in time they will burst, and there will be profusion of the cross shaped blossoms. The pussy willows will soon open and show their silver fuzz.
But, it's not quite time. As the catalogues of bulbs, plants and seeds arrive in the mail, I feel the call to get outside and clear the spot where the vegetable garden will be this year. I circle the items I want to order, and I want to get them into the ground. But it's not quite time yet. There is still danger of a night-time freeze, and we who plant, dare not do so until 'tax day' arrives, April 15. Then we have a pretty good chance of seeing our plants survive.
There is much clean up and preparation to do before anything can go into the ground. The horrible Bermuda grass, which sends its roots crawling into places it doesn't belong, takes over in the flower beds. It comes up between the wanted blossoms, and is a dickens to pull out. It's never really gone, but it lies under the soil, just ready to push up and take a place with the flowers. It's my nemesis as it appears to be stronger than my muscles are.
I'm waiting to do battle with the weeds and the earth. With a bad shoulder that hangs on and a strained muscle in my back that has given me excrutiating pain for the last few weeks, I must wait. It's not quite time to attempt anything that requires use of those muscles.
The Bible says, "to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven." Though my mind is ready to work, my flesh is weak, and the weather is a trickster. In light of my desire to get my hands dirty, today I will fill my four window box containers with gardening soil, and I will plant some lettuce seeds and some flowers, and set them into the sunlight in our back room. The tomato plants, the squashes, the peppers, and the corn I hope will yield, must wait for a little longer...because it's not quite time.
