Spring

Spring is very clearly hear. And it makes me extremely happy. I don't remember this reaction from previous years; I make a big deal out of being a "winter girl" who likes cold weather. But maybe because this winter was colder than any past winter since I've lived here in the South, and because so much of it was gray and overcast, I'm rejoicing that it's spring this year.

It's a relief to see my lawn green up. I was getting so tired of looking at the old dead yellow grass. I had forgotten how my eyes hungered for green.

The past couple of days have been extremely nice - warm but not hot, not humid, sunny, a light cool breeze. Heavenly weather. I've spent a lot of time out working in my garden clearing up after the fall and winter. I've been clearing out great quantities of dead leaves that accumulated in my gardens, and cutting out all the little seedlings of elm and mulberry and other weedy trees that have got started.

I've promised myself that if I'm diligent and do a good job clearing up, in another week or two I will go to the nice, big garden center that has neat plants (as opposed to the big-box stores' garden centers which have mostly run-of-the-mill stuff) and buy some things to fill in the empty spaces. (It's kind of a challenge - my unoccupied garden space is mostly SHADY space, and there aren't a lot of attractive shade plants. I like dead-nettles and I have a few of those growing, and some vinca [which is actually a pain - it spreads from runners so you can't get in there to rake out leaves without tearing it all up]. And I have some sedums, which do surprisingly well and are actually making babies.).

I also planted beans. I know everyone goes for garden tomatoes, but for my money, green beans are more satisfying: they grow fast, they produce well here, there don't seem to be many fungal diseases that attack them (the worst thing I've ever got was bean beetles, which you can deal with either by picking them off or using something like "Sevin"). And a green bean straight out of the garden is "more better" than grocery store green beans (even farmer's market green beans) than a tomato out of the garden is better than a farmer's market tomato.

(It's easy for me to get decent farmer's market tomatoes here; green beans not so much. Most people pick them when they are way too large. The secret is to pick them when they are about 4" to 5" long; they are most tender and taste the best to me at that point)

I have four beanrows. (Didn't Thoreau talk about his nine beanrows in the "bee-heavy glade"?). Two are out back and are planted with a fingerling variety of bean that I've grown before and really liked. The other two are in the tiny patch of earth on the west side of my house, next to the driveway. Those are a variety called "tenderpod," which I've never grown before but I figure anything with the name "tenderpod" must be pretty good.

(They're short beanrows; I don't plan on having more than a dozen plants per row. But as I live alone, that should be plenty of beans. I may even wind up learning how to blanch and freeze beans like my mom used to when I was a kid and we had giant gardens and she didn't work so she spent her entire summer growing stuff in the garden and canning or freezing it. I didn't realize how spoiled I was, vegetable-wise, until I grew up and moved out and had to start eating "store" veggies and realized they tasted nothing like the ones my mom grew). I'm also going to plant two more rows out back (I have room) in a few weeks to keep the bean supply going.

I also cleaned out the front flowergardens and planted some nasturtium seeds. And I planted starts of tomatoes to grow indoors until the soil gets hot enough (tomatoes really do best when it's consistently warm out, and we are still getting the old cool day).

While I was doing this, I saw people out - it's like everyone's finally emerged, like everyone has come out of hibernation. Kids on bikes. Groups of teenagers walking and laughing over some private joke and socking each other on the arms. Young families with toddlers in strollers or little kids reaching high, high up to hold Dad's hand. A young couple with a much older woman who must have been one of their grandmothers. Most of the people waved or smiled or said hi when they saw me. It was a good feeling, like this is where I belong.

I know it will get hot all too soon; if I don't work well on the garden now we'll reach a point where it's over 90 and really humid and I will be all "Garden? Meh, it's hot." But for now, working in it is a joy.