Gardening in the Time of COVID-19

April 16^th, we hope we can get started again around here. Of course, the date is a guide, no certainty. But we are watching the forecasts. Maybe we’ll soon be in the clear.

Most gardeners keep an eye on the average last and first frost dates of a planting season. The hope is warmer earlier so ground temperatures come up for seeding. Obviously, no one wants a snap frost to burn tender blossoms either.

So, we wait.

April 16^th. With the understanding that we have a 30% chance of a freeze later than this date. That uncertainty thing.

Did I mention an osprey has been fishing out back for 3 days? Seems a non sequitur, but the observation speaks to how easily I can be distracted from tasks at hand. Transplanting. Thinning peaches on one of the dwarf varieties. Taking down a raised bed. Turning the soil in another. Adding a few knockouts to what is the largest planted area in the yard.

But not seeding grasses or vegetables yet. Tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers this year.

We’re at that stage where much is leafed out, but our world is still not fully flushed with the ripeness of spring. Still spotting a new leaf here or a tiny bud there. Each day a little better, a little closer to what will be the normal summer’s landscape again.

I do believe we added two red-shouldered hawks to the world this season. Now awaiting goslings and heron chicks.

In the evenings I walk about with a mug in hand, internally registering a little more growth in the orchard, the Heavenly Bamboo Nandina a little taller, poplars I planted catching up to a fully mature one closer to the lake.

Same routine in the morning, to catch some progress, something to cling to—the world spinning back into alignment with what we hope for. A line in the sand of a sort, a date we can mark on our calendar. April 16^th.