By Charity Shumway |

Spring Sneaks Onto My Terrace

Right now, my terrace is a vision of windswept desolation.

The plants have been drab, brown-grey for months now, the blooms and vines of 2012 blown into tangles and dried into rattling husks.  The only big excitement for the last long while has been when the gusts get so strong that the trees tip over, and I have to put on my coat and scurry out to mount a rescue mission.

I keep meaning to get out there for a proper spring cleanup. You know, trim back the dead, ready the soil for the new, maybe even plant an early crop of sweet peas. But each and every morning I’ve felt ambitious and stepped out into the wind, I’ve started shivering and quickly decided: another day.

Even without me, though, the garden has been quietly getting ready on its own. The delphinium, spotted today, is my first verified sign of green:

New leaves! Truly, I am amazed. It’s called spring, I know it happens every year, and yet I never quite believe it’s going to come.

And then there’s the parade of buds. Peach:

Viburnum: (they look like sloth claws, don’t they?)

 

And my super exciting flowering plum:

That one looks like little peppercorns about to explode. I can’t wait.

Spring, keep a comin’. Please!

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