Serendipity Gardens by Carol Hegel Lang

If I had to pick a favorite month, I think it would have to be April because the gardens are ever-changing from day to day with new life. For this gardener, it is touching my soul to see the rebirth of everything.

We received some much needed rain and sunny, warm days and every time I turn around something is popping through the ground. On April 1 I could barely see the daffodils and crocuses trying to peek above the soil, and within a couple of days they were several inches tall and buds were beginning to form.

The Angelique tulips are coming back again this year. Mr. Rabbit has been inching closer to them as I look out the window, so I decided it was time to get the pinwheel moved a bit closer to them. I love rabbits, but I also don’t appreciate them munching on the few tulips that I have growing and would like to see them blooming.

Gayle Sweeney wrote this about tulips: “Tulips can captivate the world and sweep away the winter blues. Opening morning chalices, they sparkle like diamond dew.” Maybe Mr. Rabbit feels the same way about them. Every year I think about planting more tulips, but I remember how the rabbits always delight in snacking on them. If the snow is still on the ground and I can’t see them I just let the thought drift out of my mind until spring time.

Every day I wander through the gardens checking to see what flowers are peeking through the soil and then I head for the shed and bring out a few more of the garden ornaments. It is really beginning to look a bit like spring everywhere I look. Buds are just waiting to burst open on the maple tree behind the fence and the buds on the viburnum are really swelling. The birdbaths are so busy I have to fill them twice a day as the birds splash the water out of them.

I bought a new fountain that I will be setting up shortly along the back patio and I need to change the twinkle lights on the tuteur as half of them are not working. The same is true of the lights on the Victorian gazebo. This time of the year is very busy for us gardeners, trying to get everything done on a schedule. I will be planting the heirloom sweet peas later next week and I am very anxious to have them again in my gardens. These varieties have a lovely clove scent and are so colorful. I see my poppies have really been sprouting through the ground along the north fence and it looks like they have multiplied. They usually bloom before Memorial Day and are the traditional orange perennial variety.

The garden flags got changed from a winter theme to a spring/summer theme and I can’t find the one for the front garden, so I may have to buy a new one. They add color and whimsy to the gardens this time of the year when very little is blooming and I can see them from every window in the house. A friend gave me a potting bench that was a former sewing cabinet that I will be using under the gazebo on the patio this year to pot up my plants (thanks Roy and Nancy) so I don’t have to use a large garbage can with the lid inverted. It is always nice when items can be repurposed for the garden, and even though this item was not meant to withstand the weather outdoors hopefully I can get a few years of service out of it.

The little free library has been very busy with the warmer weather and I can see we need to put down a few paver bricks on the ground in front of it so they don’t step onto the muddy areas while they pick out their books. Last year I put a small bench from the garden next to it as well as a nice planter with colorful geraniums to make it a cozy place for the kids. If you haven’t visited it yet, we invite you to stop by soon.

“There is no time like spring, when life’s alive in everything.”  — Christina Rossetti

 

Carol Hegel Lang is a green thumb residing in Albert Lea. Her column appears weekly. Email her at carolhegellang@gmail.com.