JUNE 10,
2013
IT'S RAINING...IT'S POURING...I'M GARDENING ANYWAY!
I woke up
excited. Today I get to spend in my
garden. It’s June and I have 8 boxes of
plants to put in the ground or into pots.
Yesterday the sun was shining and the temperatures managed to climb
above 60 degrees! Everywhere plants and
shrubs and trees are blooming—behind schedule, but blooming. Although it is a third of the way into June already,
my garden is full of tulips and the neighbors lilacs won’t open until probably
the end of the week or next. The trees
are only now leafing out. While most
years we are referring to the season as Summer even if it is officially still Spring, this year it is indeed Spring in every sense. At this rate Summer’s visit will be a very
short stay. She might not even linger
long enough to take her hat off!
I am getting
dressed. It is chilly. The sky is heavy with cloud cover. I check my weather app and read, 39
degrees—with an expected high of 45 and increasing chance of rain with every
hour. Undaunted, I put on my fleece
pants, my favorite grey turtleneck sweater and my purple fleece, warm socks,
tennis shoes. I find my heavy blue rain
jacket and I’m out the door to meet the first raindrops. First job, water the plants along the
foundation where no rain can get to because of the eaves. How ridiculous this must look to the
neighbors—watering my garden in the rain.
I survey the
boxes of plants in the garage. I decide
that at least I can plant all the pots from the relative shelter of the edge of
my garage. It rains harder. I go in search of pots, of buckets and
fertilizer, of an old bag of soil from last year. I drag one of the hoses over. I begin to wash the dead leaves and dirt and
spiders out of the pots.
The air is
cold. The water is cold. The rain is cold. I dampen and stir my dirt. I dunk plants in a bucket of icy cold
fertilized water. I fill my pots.
I untangle
the morning glories from the tomatoes and petunias and decide they need to go
right into the ground before they cause any more trouble trespassing where they
aren’t wanted. The rain runs off the
roof onto my back as I plant each Heavenly Blue—one, two, three, four of them
along the porch trellis.
David helps
me drag away the broken pot in the front yard and we sit on the porch watching
the rain and discussing whether to replace the pot. We decide we will. I trudge back to my station half under the
eave of the garage and plant geraniums and vinca vines and asparagus ferns and
a bowl of pansies. David takes a picture
and posts it on Facebook: Some people just don’t know when to stay in
and curl up with a good book!
Finally, the
last pot is filled, the last plant has been dipped in the bucket of water so it
will not dry out waiting for us to plant them in the ground. I hose the mud down the driveway into the
alley. It has not stopped raining the
entire 4 hours I have been outside working.
It is 44 degrees.
I go inside
and there is a mushroom/veggie/bacon omlette waiting for me.
