April Showers Bring .... Mud Season!

The photo above is my new indoor plant stand in my new tiny house-type apartment. I have been really looking forward to having a yard to grow things in this year, but getting anything started at this time of the year in this neck of the woods is iffy at best. It is officially Mud Season. April showers here go on for days and weeks, with a few days here and there of sunshine and warmer daytime temps. An overnight cold snap or frost is not unheard of. So I continue to play indoors for now, pruning and re-potting my plants, trimming my bamboo plant that has taken off like wildfire (it must love it's new home), and praying every day that I will soon be able to get outside and do some real gardening.

I also have to confess to being jealous that some people I know are posting pictures of their daffodils and crocus already coming up. They live outside of town where there is more light and they have good, amended soil. No one has really gardened around here for years and the soil is thick, wet, and not very appealing.

Sometimes we have to take stock of where we are, what works and what doesn't, and act accordingly. When I had to leave my old garden out in the country, I had to learn to master container gardening on a screened-in porch which came out better than I could have dreamed. Then I moved into a studio apartment and learned to garden with grow-lights. Now I have a real garden to play in, but have to wait until Mother Nature decides that Mud Season is over and real Spring can finally arrive. Until then, I have to learn to be patient, read up on amending thick, clay soil, and look seriously at raised beds as an alternative. What works, what doesn't, and how can I find a way to grow successfully like my bamboo plant. If it can find a way to thrive, so can I. 

And so it is.