I got my first seed catalog yesterday, and oh! It sure brightened the dark, dreary day. A real feast for the eyes.
I’m not sure how much I want to spend on mail order seeds and plants this year. With all the price increases (not just groceries but also utilities and insurance), money will be tighter, but still. Flowers? Always a great investment since food for the soul is as important as food for the body.
Regardless of how it turns out, I can dream about glorious gardens and lush blooms. And anyway, with snow on the ground and more in the forecast, dreaming is about all that can be done right now. Luckily, feasting one’s eyes on beautiful if improbable flower photos in catalogs and dreaming about seeing them in one’s own yard takes a heck of a lot less work than buying the seeds and starters and actually planting them.
Even if I wanted to invest actual money in garden dreams, I still pretty much have to wait until spring and see what in my garden survived the winter. It’s possible that some plants I am counting on won’t make it through this horrendous winter; it’s also possible that other plants will have seeded themselves to fill in the gaps. Besides, if I pass on this opportunity to order plants, there will be other opportunities come spring when localized businesses bring out their gardening wares.
To be honest, this long winter chill has made me so lazy that the thought of working in my yard exhausts me. If I am even more honest, one of the thrills for me of having a garden is being able to take photographs of anything that comes up, so I could borrow someone else’s garden or even just rest on the laurels of past photos.
As if!
We both know that come spring, I’ll be out there doing what I can to reclaim and rebeautify my garden spots, even if it takes more work than I would like.
Meantime, I can feast my eyes not just on the all the catalogs that are sure to come, but also on photos of previous garden successes.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
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