The Season In Between

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Spring season planting
And so it’s here, what I call, The Season In Between. That weird and wonderful time in a California spring where the days are warm and sunny, but the evenings are cool enough that they cry out for a roaring fire. This creates highs and lows amongst us gardeners.

Do we plant? Don’t we plant? What could we plant? It’s an anxious time of wanting desperately to be out in the dirt, but knowing the cold could wipe us out in a single night. I pace and watch to see what the readings are on the thermometer outside my kitchen window. We are still into the 40’s at night – too cold for most veggies.

So here I am, with a kitchen full of sprouted vegetables in pony packs and flats and pots, just itching to be out growing in the dirt.

I came home to a relatively warm, and sunlight evening. It was about 52 degrees, the breeze was light, but the sun was out and I was tired of being locked up in four-walls with fluorescent lights. So I fixed a pot of tea, put on a heavy sweater, grabbed a gardening book and went outside to sit in the cool night air.

I have a cushion-lined Adirondack chair set at the far edge of the garden. It gives me a panoramic view of both the vegetable beds and the barn area. The evening was peaceful. Birds twittered and the hens scratched around in their yard. I left the backdoor open so the dogs could pad in and out from the warm fireplace to me.

It’s a weird twilight time of open doors, a fire inside, a cool west breeze, a waltz of chickens, and dogs milling about – all at the same time. With the chickens strutting about and the sheep in their paddock the whole farm seems to be stretching its arms into daylight savings. That deserves a few bird songs.

I hate how far away from October we are, and how long ago fall was. But to know the seeds of summer and a lot of change are getting planted, and that feels good – really good.

Fickle weather be damned.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Wanja Krah



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