A Touch of Spring

Every year I start the same moaning in January..............."wish spring would hurry up".............."wish it would get warmer"................."where did the sun go?".............it's pathetic. I know full well there is lots more winter to slog through. So it's nearly time to begin nagging hubby about rigging up some fluorescent lights somewhere in the house, so I can start a few flowers from seeds (and let's be honest here, when I say a few, what I really mean is that I'd love to start every flower I've drooled over in the gorgeous seed catalogs that swell mailman/person brings!)

What a wonderful thing it is to walk into an otherwise dull, sun-deprived room and find neat rows of tiny green things.................an oasis of life in the bleak mid-winter :)

Like any gardener worth his or her trowel, I make it through the winter dreaming of my spring garden to come.............and I quench that thirst for all that is blooming by delving into one catalog after another, dog earing the pages to hold my dreams in place (circling several on a page if I need to).

I send away for special seed growing soil (patiently explaining to hubby why the 'potting soil' at the department store won't do). When it arrives I cut open the bag and breathe deeply (not unlike when I am next to the coffee grinder at the grocery store.........sigh). You have to love a world where you can order 'dirt' any time you want :)

Once everything has arrived I plot which flowers to grow together in the same flat (will this one grow too leggy, while the other forms a compact habit?), make my own plastic id markers (because I've spent too much money on seeds, and can't afford to buy the fancy ones), pre-soak the soil and get ready for my own little planting party.

After which, the real fun begins. Checking the containers every day to see who has germinated early (or not at all), who needs a drink or who needs moved a bit further from the light. Re-checking my seed growing book to make sure I've not forgotten something (and scratching my head when, despite my best efforts, all has not gone according to my 'bible').

Once the germinating starts my heart begins humming that happy little tune that assures me that spring....and the dance across the lawn to the flower beds..........can't be too far behind!!

Down? Depressed? Sun-deprived?? Throw away the prozac and plant some posies!!!


"Have patience; here are flowers and songs of birds,
Beauty and fragrance, wealth of sound and sight,
All summer's glory thine from morn till night,
And life too full of joy for uttered words"..............from the poem "Landlocked" by Celia Thaxter.