Spring Planting

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: April 7, 2008

We have started the whole mulching process and now I can’t wait to plant flowers… we still have plenty of mulching left to do but we have at least started the process and as we go along I look around at the places that need “landscaping” last year I started the process of planting azaleas and other small shrubs in a large area of our backyard that is supposed to be mulched but as I referenced in an earlier blog has only been a fine layer of dirt for the last three years or so…

Years ago apparently our home had beautiful landscaping but when we bought it the areas around the house were in need of attention… after we had several trees taken down due to danger of them falling on our house what little bit of landscaping that was left was crushed by those fallen trees… so as we played catch up on the mulch and landscaping in this past Sunday’s drizzle… a trip to a popular hardware store put me in full lanscaping and planting mode… I mean I have so many ideas and things that I want to do right now… but because of our planting season and the fact that we haven’t had our last frost I am forced to be patient…

For the first time ever I have decided to start some flowers from seed… it was pointed out to me just before our evening editorial meeting that it may be more work than it is worth “You could buy that plant as a seedling for about 85 cents...” said John Carlin…

I will probably end up buying quite a few already blooming plants to put out but I wanted to see if I could get them to grow from a seed… through a very tedious and selective process I decided to sow seeds for several different kinds of Zinnias… “peppermint stick” & “red king” just to name a couple… and seeds for a Morning Glory that blooms a pretty blue hue with a cotton candy pink stripe through the petal… to me these are two unique plants that I don’t often see for sale in those little plastic trays and if I can get them to grow they will be all the more special to me as I place them around our yard and home…

I am a very “amateur” gardener but each year I love it more and more… for me the idea of planting flowers and shrubs in the past was just about making the house look better but now… when I pick out the plants I want to use around our house I go through a somewhat painstaking process of thinking about and picturing the colors and shapes and the “message” they send… that sounds silly to some but for people who find joy in gardening I’ll bet you can relate…

As Matt and I were spreading some mulch on Sunday I looked over next to our stairs and saw something inspiring among the weeds… last May I planted some maroon and orange lilly bulbs in honor of the victims of the April 16th shootings… it was just a quite memorial I thought of for our home… I hadn’t told Matt about it and he went over that whole area with weed killer.. I never saw the slightest sign of growth and made mention of it to Matt… that is when he said, “I wish you had told me.. I didn’t realize and sprayed for weeds..” I was disappointed but couldn’t blame him for something he didn’t know about…

So back to the inspiring part… when I looked at the weed covered section next to our stairs to try to determine what I might plant there this spring my eyes got wide...there were green sprouts about 7 inches out of the ground every two feet or so along the walkway… I yelled at Matt to come look… He said,” We’ll just need to get those weeds out from around them and get some mulch in there and they will look nice...” in the heavy drizzle I quickly started clearing the weeds and leaves out… I completely cleaned out the flowerbed except for those beautiful bright green sprouts… Matt later said,” I can’t wait to see those lillies bloom...” I thought to myself… “I can’t either...”

Perhaps, people who grow to love gardening the way I have… enjoy it because they think of natures beauty as a symbol of life, peace and goodness in the world… a flower or shrub never hurt anyone and they sure do make me smile…