As soon as Valentine's Day was past, stores and windows were adorned with decorations for St. Patrick's Day. Everywhere I looked were leprechauns, four leaf clovers, and a sea of green. There was green everywhere except where I wanted to see it the most ... in our back yard.
For weeks all I could see when I looked out of the window was a blanket of white. We didn't get as much snow as we usually get up here in the north, but what did fall stayed and stayed. It was an unusually cold winter and even though we had a few sunny days, the -20 windchills did not help. Then, finally, a warming trend. It got so warm that you didn't need a jacket. Mother Nature had a heck of a hot flash because it just about hit 70 degrees before coming to her senses and sending the temperature back down in the 40's. Thankfully, it was enough to erase the sea of white and replace it with the beginnings of what I have come to call "The Greening." That is the time when the earth starts to slowly wake up and stretch her green wings. The grass turns from brown to green, the buds on the trees start to peek out, and the birds are happily flapping their own wings and setting to the task of nest building.
I don't know any gardener who lives in zones like ours that doesn't start to get impatient around this time of year. We've received out seed catalogs in the mail, and the stores are already having sales on soil, seeds, and garden tools. Now all we need is for Mother Nature to come out of hibernation along with the bears and start spreading the green around. Just like the joy in St. Patrick's Day, there's nothing like a little greenery to lift our spirits.
And so it is.
