A Time And A Season

Gardening in the Northeast takes a great deal of patience. We have a saying here in Upstate New York that if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change. So far in the month of May we have had several late frosts, followed by several mini-heat waves, followed by five days of rain, followed by ... well, you get the picture. After many years of going through this Jekyll and Hyde scenario, I have come up with a firm rule of thumb to follow: don't plant anything before Memorial Day. Even after Memorial Day one must still be careful to plant the things that can take the morning chills up here first, followed by the less cold tolerant plants that require warmer climates around the clock. Everything in it's right time.

My granddaughter is getting married tomorrow (the one in the cap and gown ... the other one has a few years to go yet).. She is my first grandchild. She was the first one to call me Grammy. If I close my eyes I can see her at two years old following me around the garden with her little child-size gardening tools and pail helping me dig up weeds and plant flowers. Her aunt gave her a battery operated riding dump truck and she would load up all my clippings and garden cast-offs and drive them around to the back of the garage to the compost pile. By age three she was an accomplished gardener. We share a love of nature and a reverence for the spirits of earth and sky, water and animals. Only yesterday we played and laughed together like two naughty children when their parents are away. Tomorrow I will watch her move on and begin a new life. To everything there is a season.

The things we plant in the minds and hearts of those that come after us take time to take root and grow. Just as in our gardens, it is important to pick the right seeds and plant them at the right time in the right conditions. Even if we don't see evidence of one particular plant coming into maturity when we think it should, if we have faith in the soil and the the seed, it will grow in it's own way and in it's own time. Whether we think it is too soon or too late is up to the plant, not us. It may even surprise the older, seasoned gardeners in us with how well it turns out. To everything there is a time and a season.

I love you, Courtney.

And so it is.