I am writing
this on March 1, 2014 – hoping that the Groundhog was wrong and that the Old
Farmer’s Almanac turns out to be unnecessarily pessimistic.
Here is their
2014 Long-Range Weather Forecast for Hartford, Connecticut: average temperature
43° (1° below normal); precipitation 3" (1" below avg.); Mar 1-8:
Snow showers, cold; Mar 9-14: Sunny, then showers, turning warm; Mar 15-16:
Sunny, cool; Mar 17-21: Heavy rain, then sunny, cool; Mar 22-25: Rain, then
sunny, cool; Mar 26-31: Sunny, then rainy, warm.
I am itching
like crazy to get my long-dormant garden hands on those winter-dried perennial
stems that were left standing over the cold months in order to provide (a) food
and shelter for the birds; (b) “winter interest” – i.e. cool shadows and freaky
skeletal sculptures; and (c) something to do in early spring to get my frozen
horticultural juices flowing again.
I am
desperately looking forward to the first sunny day that requires no more
clothing than a flannel shirt and perhaps a light down vest (and pants of
course) – when I can retrieve my pruning shears and thin leather gloves from
the bottom of my yard-work basket, and hew these deliberately neglected and now
snow-crushed and pitiful looking desiccated twigs into piles of pick-up-sticks
to be consigned to the first trash bin of the growing season.
I am imagining
the feel of my large red plastic leaf rake dragging debris from the bare space
between my hacked-down herbage, and the gentle stroke of my hand-held shrub
rake as my knees feel the cool, damp earth for the first time in several months
–– and perhaps I uncover the first fresh-grown green anything of the year.
It’s all
happened before – at the same time, in the same way. So, even though as we all know “past
performance is no guarantee of future results” – it could happen again.
That’s what I
am hoping anyway – that as you read this at the end of the third month I will
have experienced at least some of my “OMG, spring really is here” garden dreams
– and you, yours.
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