Spring and gardening

Do you like to garden? Well, I do, too!! We spent the day yesterday at our Mankato farmhouse. It was a magnificent Minnesota spring day. Magnificent. About 64 or so degrees with a cool and crisp wind at times. I worked on weeding one of my native gardens, while Jan moved the last items (a door from my father’s old home place in Maryland and our dog run) out of the house and transplanted the plants. The house will be demolished this week. A couple of weeks ago I bought a wagonload of native plants at a plant sale at the U of MN. We hastily planted most of these last week. Those of you who know me know that I have a thing about plants in general. What you may not know is I can almost weep at the sight of beautiful plants. Let me explain: we have had a long winter and a slow start to spring in Minnesota. We as avid gardeners wait along time before we can get back in the soil and muddle around in it. Seeing all that budding and new life at that plant sale, especially down the native plants aisle, brought tears to my eyes.I was moved to tears because it simply has been such a long time since I saw our native plants! Wahoo for spring!



The rural property is a blaze with life and palette of green. Our lilacs are about to bloom, the trees are unfolding new leaves each and every day and the birds. The birds. The songbirds are back!! Weeding out that garden was a great reminder to me of the beauty and the cycle of our natural world. The birds are back and soon the monarchs will be also. Looking out across all of the trees on our property reminded me of the cyclic seasonal nature of growth. The trees, bushes and native plants are unfurrowing their leaves, roots and stems. No matter that Mother Nature tossed a couple of bolts of lightening that destroyed our farmhouse. The cycling natural world continues. That is profound to me.

So, yes, you read right above: the house will be demolished this week. We have said goodbye and removed all the contents. But, there is a promise of things to come, there is greener grass in our future so to speak, as these pictures illustrate.



Finally, I am on a mission this summer to grow the best and tastiest tomatoes, ever. I have two flats of seedlings (heirlooms) that I grew myself. I will be planting them this week under a variety of experimental conditions, including containers, in the ground and in a variety of greenhouse type contraptions that I am making to hold the heat in. I don’t know about you, but, for me, nothing tastes better than garden fresh tomatoes! I can barely eat them out of season. Growing them is a fun challenge for me. Part of my rest and recreation themes of my sabbatical, too. TTFN and thanks for reading. michele