Last week of March

Spring has sprung as the saying goes.  It’s hard not to feel uplifted as we experience warmer, longer days and it seems as if everywhere you look there is something in bloom.  I love the succession of flowers that happens every year.  From the earliest flowering apricots, camellias and paperbush to early cherries, daffodils and forsythia to midseason cherries, redbuds and Japanese Magnolias.  In a couple weeks dogwoods and azaleas will steal the show followed by peonies and roses and on it goes.  There is something reassuring in this annual succession.  Through all the ups and downs of life there is a steady, comforting and reassuring rhythm moving us gently (sometimes reluctantly) forward if we just take a little time to pay attention.  

We can learn a useful lesson from nature for our gardens, too.  The most interesting gardens mimic this progression.  As you’re planning consider adding trees and shrubs with differing bloom times (leaf color counts, too.)  For those of us with smaller spaces (or already full spaces) the same effect can be achieved using bulbs and perennials.  The goal is to have something in flower, or interesting to look at, throughout the seasons – just like the wider natural world around us.