MARCH - Named for the Roman God of War

Paddy caps (hats) off to the Irish! March is a windy, sometimes chilly, but joyous month when everyone becomes Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. In the northern states, it’s also the month which can come roaring in like a lion with cold blustery weather and go out with warmth and the softness of a lamb or—vice versa.

Everyone looks forward to March 20^th, when spring is supposed to march in and put an end to winter weather. Daffodils, the flower of March, rear their sleepy heads and poke through the cold ground, bringing the color of sunshine back to the drab flowerbeds.

Rain and mud are part of spring. If we’re fortunate, we might well see the return of early migrating birds. Birds that nest in the Northern Hemisphere tend to migrate in spring to take advantage of burgeoning insect populations, budding plants, and an abundance of nesting locations. I love to step outside, search the sky, and listen when I hear the first flocks of geese winging their way toward Canada.

For me, it’s also a bittersweet month. My mother passed away in the month of March. Ironically, her birthday was on St. Patrick’s Day. For someone of Polish ancestry, she was always a good sport and laughed and loved the cakes, iced in green with shamrocks, we made to celebrate her special day.

Most of all, for those of us who like to garden, who like to watch things grow, it’s an exciting month as we start planning the flowers, vegetables, herbs, and other greenery we’d like to plant for the coming spring, summer, and fall ahead. Last year, we had a bucket garden filled with a variety of spices. This year, my husband has found a “vertical squash” plant we want to grow. But that’s a story for another day.

Hats off to all… and to the month of March named for the Roman god of war, Mars.  May it be a prosperous and pleasing one for all.

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HERE COMES SUMMER..with its sights, scents, and sounds!

In June, I patiently search for the first signs of summer.

Listen closely, and you can hear the birdsong at sunrise. It’s the doves at our house who start the calliope of song if we leave our bedroom windows open. The nosy robins are back, nesting under our deck and in the rhododendron. Their first fledglings have already been booted out of the nest and intermittently (and annoyingly) squawk, calling for a parent. The brazen sparrows have also returned and have kicked the bluebirds out of their nesting box. Only one lone hummingbird visits our feeder.

Rain in June is a silver spoon as the old adage goes. It’s the month when vegetation emerges and gardens in the North are planted which will yield bountiful crops throughout the next four months and into fall. This year, my bucket garden has been watered quite often by the gray clouds hovering in the sky. I decided to change it up a bit. I’m growing some herbs: lemon thyme, rosemary, oregano, and parsley. Every year I grow a plant of basil on the patio.

The flower of June is the rose which is my favorite because of its soft, layered petals and delicate scent.

I was lucky to be born on a scorching, 90+ degree, June day—the last one of the month—right in the middle of haying season, as my Dad used to point out with a slight grumble in his voice.

When June arrives, farmers push hard during the sweltering sunny days to get a hay field cut, dried, and baled. The sweet and intoxicating scent of newly mowed grass fills the air and forces everyone near to pause and enjoy it, even if the work of cutting, baling, and storing it is hot, intense, and tiresome.

Do you have favorite sights, scents, and sounds of summer?

As poet James Russell Lowell so aptly writes about the month:

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays: 

Whether we look, or whether we listen,

We hear life murmur, or see it glisten…

                                    ~ James Russell Lowell – 1819-1891

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Bucket Gardens in May

"It's May, it's May, the lusty month of May
That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray
It's here, it's here, that shocking time of year,
When tons of wicked little thoughts merrily appear."
                Lusty Month of May - from Camelot

Despite the snow, despite the rain, May is the time when those with a bit of farming gene in their blood start thinking about spring gardens as they sit in their recliners in the evening and pour over stacks of seed catalogs. They are anxious and ready, and they know there is magic in the month of May. Soon it will be planting time and the excitement of growing vegetables and flowers is as exhilarating today as it was for their ancestors centuries and centuries ago. Seeds are united with soil, sun, air and water to create the miracle of life.

This year, I’ve convinced my husband into making me a bucket garden stand from two-by-four lumber. It consists of two-levels of raised shelves where five-gallon, plastic buckets—filled with soil, seeds, or plants—stand above ground to make gardening simple and easy. I’ve added a picture here, but it’s not my stand.

I’m pondering what plants I want to grow, but I know for sure that two buckets will be filled with tomato plants, one will be a basil plant, and another will be seeded with yellow squash. Since mine is an eight bucket stand, I have time to come up with some other choices, including one bucket that may be filled with flowers. I can’t wait to smell the soil, stand in the sunshine, and get some dirt under my fingernails. As soon as our creation is finished, I'll be sure to post a picture.

Now, all we have to do is chase this rainy, cold weather away, and let the lusty magical month of May arrive with all its blossoms, bird songs, and beauty.  

Coming June 24th - HUCKLEBERRY HAPPINESS 

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