APRIL LIVES UP TO ITS NAME

  

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

-T.S. Eliot

As a child growing up in rural Alabama one of my fondest memories was sleeping to the sound of rain on our tin roof. It was also one of my greatest fears that the rain would change into a terrible thunderstorm or tornado, as it often did in April and May. I can't even begin to guess how many sleepless  nights we spent in a storm cellar during tornado season.

                         April in the Sweet Garden

This April has lived up to its reputation " April showers bring May flowers. "  It rained heavily everyday for an entire week.  I was astonished at the huge volume of water that poured from the sky during a very heavy downpour.  I wish that I could pipe some of it out to California .

                    Birds have set up a nest in my birdhouse.  There is food and water nearby for the parents when the babies hatch.

Despite the many rainy days we had I managed to add quite a few new shrubs to the woodland garden :  Aronia, Red Buckeye, kerria japonica, 2  'celestial ' dogwoods, a kousa hybrid and 'appalachian snow. '   I spread one large bag of butterfly and hummingbird wildflower seeds in the roadside wildflower garden.  So many plants from last year have returned, much to my surprise and delight, given the harsh winter we had. 

                One of my favorite natives, red buckeye.

It is my goal to have drifts of sweet woodruff, autumn ferns, woodland phlox, lily of the valley, ferns, barrenwort, astilibe, bergenia, mullien, cranesbill geranium, hellebores, pulmonaria, brunnera , jacob's ladder, and columbines in the woodland garden that fronts my house.  Planting them requires a lot of work as its not possible to dig very deep in the hard pan soil that is rock and clay so I must prepare all the areas with good topsoil mixed with compost and manure.

   The boulder garden in back has sprung to life with iris, catmint, daffodils, lamb's ear, dianthus, ajuga and soapwort in bloom.

Since I haven't put up a fence in my backyard yet I've only planted tomatoes and green onions which I keep sprayed with deer and rabbit repellent.  I'm hoping to break ground on a new fence sometime within the next month or so.  So far I have an orchard of 2 Asian pears, persimmon, pawpaw tree, and a nectarine.

     Spring onions and Better boy tomatoes in raised bed.

Because of my intensive purchasing and planting my daughter asked me if I there would ever come a time when I wouldn't have anything left to plant to which I replied a gardener's work is never done.  I do however look forward to the day when I can enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Now April draws to a close and so does my 70th year.  Tomorrow I shall be a year older and hopefully, wiser.