I love spring. It is probably my favorite time of year. After everything was brown and dead over the winter, you get to see all of these colorful surprises. And not just the browns of winter, but the cold which also does tend to keep me inside. You can actually go outside and just "be" in the spring.
I am a strange sort of gardener. I love flowers. I even love foodtype plants. I like to find uses for the things I grow. (Even dandelions make delicious wine.) But the part that makes me a strange gardener is that I don't really like dirt, and I hate bugs, and worms are not really my thing. Oh, and weeds, well, they are just not my friend. If I planted strawberries here, that is all that should be growing here.
Even so, I step outside of my house, and I imagine what I want my yard/garden to look like. In the spring, I am happy to pull the weeds. I don't even mind the worms or the dirt that much. Though as the summer comes, I care just a little bit less. By then it has become a chore to go out and water and pull those weeds that always find their way back during the night.
I prefer plants that come back year after year. I deal with the dirt and worms once. Then I enjoy the beauty for years to come. I have slowly over the course of the last four years been working through areas of my yard. In fact I am not sure I should call it a yard. My backyard has never actually been grass. When we moved in it was mostly dirt and dandelions. Truly, I have no intention of planting grass there. I also do not care about watering grass only to have to turn around and mow it. Now I know there are people who enjoy this and that is fine with me.
But my back 'yard' is going to be:
- vegetable garden (tomato, peppers, onions, and such for making spaghetti sauce and salsa), at some point I would like to add things like greenbeans, carrots, and other things. But first I need to focus on getting these areas under control.
- strawberry and pineberry garden (maybe some other berry in the future for eating and making jelly and wine),
- herb garden (so far mint, thyme, lemon balm, and chives .. hopefully more this year.. my lavender seems to have died - for all sorts of things - cooking, smelling, repelling bugs, essential oils, candles),
- flower garden - I have many types of flowers and I try to add a couple of more items every year
- fairy garden - We planted this slab of various amazing little plants a couple of years ago, breaking it into smaller pieces and putting it between the stepping stones I set my fairy houses on, and that stuff is spreading and coming back just like I was hoping. This weekend I plan on putting out my fairy houses.
- sand garden? This was meant to house our swimming pool. Which is something the girls and I would like. Except that under our huge trees, the water never gets warm enough that we want to swim. So this year, I am NOT putting up the pool. We are going to turn this sandy circle area into our fire pit area. Sadly right now, there are dandelions trying to take over this zone. Truly there was nothing but a ton of water there last year. But magically now there are dandelions. Generally I don't care much about dandelions, in fact I like that I can go out to my parents' house and pick several buckets of the things, and they are sort of pretty. But here in town too many people spray and I don't want to risk using ours, plus they spread into areas I don't want them.
I also want to put down paths between these areas. This will get rid of some of the dirt and weeds. All of this is a slow process for me. Eventually the actual yard/garden will look more like my imagined yard/garden.
The front yard, is just that. I am mostly okay with this. As I said, I do not hate grass. When my kids were young I wanted grass. It is good for playing. I have a few lawn games, and we can set them up and play them in the front yard.
I have irises and roses planted in the front. I tried to grow lavender and hydrangeas. Then I tried lavender in the back. It did not make it either place. I have planted hydrangeas three times; twice here and once in my last home. I do not know why they have failed. The lavender I want because I love the smell and color of lavender, and I have plans for the uses of this herb. So I am likely to continue trying to grow it. The hydrangeas I want, also because they are beautiful, but it stems originally from a book I read with my children, and then with my students, and now I NEED to have it in my garden. I have several plants because of books I have read, or the name of the plant just makes me happy. They want to be part of the story that is my garden. I am likely to try growing hydrangeas again as well. But maybe not this year, we will see how all of the other things go first.
My strawberries have invaded the area that I normally plant tomatoes and peppers. The irises need to be dug and spread as they have multiplied. The fairy garden it pretty good, but I saw a few dandelions in there. The paths need to be laid out, and all things living there killed/removed. The leaves and sticks need to be hauled to the tree dump. My shed needs to be painted. I need to build a Little Free Library for my yard. I might need to build a TARDIS for my yard - someday I will have a TARDIS. I am just pretty sure it won't be this year. My fence might get painted, and my decks should be stained. Yeah, I am pretty sure not all of this will get finished this year. But we will see. I will make the list and start to check things off. Little by little the garden will grow.
"Might I," quavered Mary, "might I have a bit of earth?"
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden
