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Enough of this winter — time to think gardens

By Staff | Feb 27, 2014

I’ve been trying to get myself excited about gardening season this year. It’s a fairly simple process – I play gardening related video games and work myself into believing that gardening is just a big time management project, weeds are easy to remove, and bugs can be squished in mass quantities, usually with a big animated shovel.

In past years this has worked, but this year I think I’m starting to get disillusioned. I’m remembering how the tomatoes went crazy last year, how the centipedes destroyed my raspberry bush, and that I developed an allergy to green bean plants. Not the vegetable itself, just the plant.

It’s not that I hate gardening – far from it. I like seeing the seeds I’ve planted spring up, I like feeling the dirt under my fingernails, and I like the feeling of achievement you get when you finally get the stubborn weed out of the ground. I look out into the snow covered vegetable garden and think, “Maybe I’ll try planting mint this year. I can dry it and turn it into mint tea,” even though I know I’m likely to get lazy and do no such thing.

I’m thinking of flowers too – my mother’s been asking after them. She wants to see cypress vine in the garden again, despite the fact nearly took over last year, because she wants the hummingbirds to come back. She wants me to plant bleeding hearts too and I’m wondering if the lavender survived the winter. I want to see the magnolia on top of the hill bloom again and I’m wishing I had someplace to grow roses.

Winter’s nice enough, I suppose. It’s an excuse to stay inside, warm and cozy, and the only thing outside that bites is the wind. I like the snow, ice, and frost. It’s good that it has been so cold – warm winters make me suspicious – but I’ve had quite enough of it this year.