The garden has begun

Today was such a gloriously warm day; the kind of day that teases you out of the house and makes promises that spring is really just a day or two away. This time of year can be such a tease. Just last week, we had a day like this, when we all ran around out in the yard in just t-shirts (well, and pants, of course). We were sure spring had come. And then we woke up to snow the next morning.

Today, though, was different. Today was the day that I bought into it. It felt like spring in the air, and so I answered the call of the wild and jumped into the garden with both feet. And both hands. I pulled up dead plants that had been left from the fall, I gathered all the debris and trash that's been rattling around out there in that neglected part of my life, and I filled up the compost bin to overflowing.

The best part about the day though was uncovering the garlic. I planted 125 cloves of garlic in the fall, all different types and varieties, as well as a few kinds of onions. (Including some "Egyptian walking onions" I am very excited about!) In order to keep them safe and warm and cozy through the winter, I had buried them all under hay and then left them to fend for themselves through the cold winter months. Today, giving in to the lure of the promise of spring, I cleared those beds off. Those wonderful bulbs have been hard at work already. There are tidy little rows of green shoots marching across the beds, and already, the smell is wonderful!

I have placed my orders from Henry Field's, from Gurney's, and from Burpee, and I can't wait to get those goodies in the ground as well. But for now, it is something akin to the feeling of being a new mom, albeit on a bit smaller scale, to see all those growing, living things out back where just this morning it had looked bleak and barren. I can only imagine what joy God must feel when he looks down at each of us and sees us, small and spindly though we are, reaching up to the sky as high as we can reach.