As the snow melts, the mud piles high and the days gradually grow lighter, a sense of relief is growing within me as I know that the time is near where winter meets its death. The human spirit grows lighter as the darkness lessens, and I begin to long for the latter days of spring and of summer, with all its assorted activities that I so love; bike riding, lawn mowing, cooking outside, tending to flowers and vegetables, watching my herbs grow large and green, reading on the deck with a cup of coffee in the late morning or in the evening, watching the fireflies, walks with the dogs. The oppressive dominion of mind and body by the winter season is finally broken, and at this point in the year, I'm so thrilled to see winter's retreat that I feel happy enough to go stick a maypole in the ground and dance around it, no matter what the neighbors would think.
What I most look forward to at this time of year is gardening, when Persephone returns from her time in Hades and fair Demeter allows the earth to blossom again (I see just how much the material from the Mythology class is permeating my life right now). The gardening catalogs are arriving, the seed catalogs right behind, and my mind (so preoccupied recently with horrific visions of Peak Oil) turns to more pleasant things as I read Fine Gardening and Mother Earth News, peruse Burpee's seed catalog and dream of the things to come. I'll be trying a few new vegetables this year; Pinot Noir peppers, a hybrid variety that has a pleasing mixture of colors on each one, a sweet red pepper, and an orange variety along with the kaleidoscope mix I used last year. Kohlrabi, wax beans, green beans (hopefully), carrots, kale and perhaps even some mild radishes will join them in the garden. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at some container herbs again this year. Basil and parsley will reprise their roles, and I'm tempted to try mint, an invasive plant that is better left in a container lest it spread across the property.
There is something wonderful about gardening, not only vegetable cultivation but also of flowers and shrubs (I'll be trying to grow delphinium again this year, hopefully with better results). It is work, certainly, but when one enjoys it as much as I do, it hardly seems like work at all. And when the results are harvested, well, there's nothing to surpass it. With the price of peppers at a premium due to the recent heavy rains in California, leaving them small and semi-withered, aside from the outrageous price, growing a garden has never seemed more relevant. The taste of well-tended vegetables is beyond compare; the carrots, peppers and broccoli that I eat from a grocery store out of season are but a shadow compared to ones grown in my backyard, to say nothing of the store-bought tomatoes that bear a closer resemblance to cardboard than the real thing.
Gardening helps restore my peace of mind, a peace that is so frequently threatened in the place where I work, in dealing with a public that can get on one's nerves all-too often (my co-workers will happily attest to this). Some of the things that I read, about the mounting national debt, climate change and all its associated terrors, the end of oil and rising resistance to antibiotics, is enough to drive one insane unless it's balanced by something more enjoyable and less threatening. Gardening, reading, and the consumption of coffee are but a few ways that I bring balance back into my life, lest the constant barrage of bad news overwhelm it. As the days go by, with February now mercifully behind us, my anticipation grows for the new season, and I look forward to starting the first of my seeds next week. It cannot come quickly enough.
What I most look forward to at this time of year is gardening, when Persephone returns from her time in Hades and fair Demeter allows the earth to blossom again (I see just how much the material from the Mythology class is permeating my life right now). The gardening catalogs are arriving, the seed catalogs right behind, and my mind (so preoccupied recently with horrific visions of Peak Oil) turns to more pleasant things as I read Fine Gardening and Mother Earth News, peruse Burpee's seed catalog and dream of the things to come. I'll be trying a few new vegetables this year; Pinot Noir peppers, a hybrid variety that has a pleasing mixture of colors on each one, a sweet red pepper, and an orange variety along with the kaleidoscope mix I used last year. Kohlrabi, wax beans, green beans (hopefully), carrots, kale and perhaps even some mild radishes will join them in the garden. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at some container herbs again this year. Basil and parsley will reprise their roles, and I'm tempted to try mint, an invasive plant that is better left in a container lest it spread across the property.
There is something wonderful about gardening, not only vegetable cultivation but also of flowers and shrubs (I'll be trying to grow delphinium again this year, hopefully with better results). It is work, certainly, but when one enjoys it as much as I do, it hardly seems like work at all. And when the results are harvested, well, there's nothing to surpass it. With the price of peppers at a premium due to the recent heavy rains in California, leaving them small and semi-withered, aside from the outrageous price, growing a garden has never seemed more relevant. The taste of well-tended vegetables is beyond compare; the carrots, peppers and broccoli that I eat from a grocery store out of season are but a shadow compared to ones grown in my backyard, to say nothing of the store-bought tomatoes that bear a closer resemblance to cardboard than the real thing.
Gardening helps restore my peace of mind, a peace that is so frequently threatened in the place where I work, in dealing with a public that can get on one's nerves all-too often (my co-workers will happily attest to this). Some of the things that I read, about the mounting national debt, climate change and all its associated terrors, the end of oil and rising resistance to antibiotics, is enough to drive one insane unless it's balanced by something more enjoyable and less threatening. Gardening, reading, and the consumption of coffee are but a few ways that I bring balance back into my life, lest the constant barrage of bad news overwhelm it. As the days go by, with February now mercifully behind us, my anticipation grows for the new season, and I look forward to starting the first of my seeds next week. It cannot come quickly enough.
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