Spring is in the Air

I warmed up the ole garden tiller yesterday! I love digging in the earth and planting. Yesterday afternoon was all about breaking up the soil, adding the compost and enriching the garden with mulch and fresh black dirt. Today, I plant.

For the past few weeks I have been outside cleaning up the vacant lots on either side of our house. It saddens me that the builders of this community had to leave such a mess on every vacant lot - old lumber, broken trees, remnants of plumbing and pipes, clumps of cement, piles of debris; bits and pieces of other peoples homes left behind to pollute the land of future home builders. Add to that years of weeds and neglect and it makes a very unsightly mess. We have these messes on both sides of our rental home.

Little by little, Jack and I have been picking up the pieces and throwing them out with our weekly trash. We have cleared away weeds and made room for a vegetable garden. The dumped boards will find a home in garden projects on our land. The re-bar became markers for identifying where our house will go in and tomato stakes in the future. We recycle what we can and throw out what should have been disposed of year's ago. We are loving the transformation - even the energy around our home feels uplifted.

A while back a friend explained to me why she sensed gardening is so important to me. I am a "feeler" - in the psychic realm I am known as an empath. I pick up on what other people are feeling and take it on. Whether I am driving down the road or walking through a mall, I attract what is going on around me and feel the emotion as if it is my own. There was a time when I didn't understand what was happening. I would be feeling great (myself) one moment and then walk into work and suddenly I would shift to some other emotion. I would feel tension or anger, apathy or fear; whatever was being sent out by those around me. I have learned now to block it or - when I take it in, to find a way to release it. When I garden, I release that energy back into the earth to be transmutated. I love the feeling of being grounded and get great satisfaction from planting and cultivating beautiful gardens. The process is also very peaceful for me and I feel it is where I experience my greatest God connection.

Saturday morning I finally connected with the Master Gardener program here in Saline County. For whatever reason, I was not able to connect until now and missed the training for this area. I will be allowed to volunteer with the other Master Gardeners but will have to take the training next January before I am officially a Master Gardener in Arkansas. One of the gardeners adopted me for the afternoon and took me around to view the various projects managed by the Master Gardeners. It seems that Benton wants to be the capitol of Crepe Myrtles. They are everywhere from small shrub to tree size! I guess I will be planting a few of these on my land as they are very beautiful in both the spring and the fall. And yes, I am already making plans for the pond we will have on our new land!

It actually feels good volunteering before I take the training. I will have a year to learn and explore the area. I have a multitude of wonderful teachers to teach me about the difference of gardening in zone "8" (This area was recently upgraded from zone 7 - another symptom of global warming.) Did you know that tulips are considered an annual here? Yup, there is not a cool enough period of time after the tulips bloom to allow the bulbs to rebuild. We get too hot to fast! I am behind the season as I should have already planted my broccoli and cabbage - that can go in mid February! Oh, we have two growing seasons in Arkansas. The first is now through the end of June and the second starts the end of August. Guess the plants don't like the heat and humidity of July and August. I wonder if Jack and I will...

Our forecast for the next 10 days is mid to upper 50's moving into the 60's. It appears we will not drop below freezing for the next 10 days. Hmmmm, Spring is in the air - I am so tempted to plant a tomato bush!