SPRING GARDENS

Spring brings more than tall, bright tulips, perky, yellow daffodiles, or happy-faced pansies. Spring brings a lightness to the heart and hope for a better tomorrow. With the advent of spring gardeners need to put their hands in the dirt. We harken back to the days of our ancestors who waited with impatience for the ground to thaw so they could plant seeds. Their very lives depended on getting food crops going so they would have enough time to mature before first frost. Today we do not depend so much on our gardens for food but rather on blooming flowers to feed our soul. Like many of today's gardeners I am more conserned with my gardens appearance than with filling the pantry with canned tomatoes or beans.

All that may change with currant changes in our economy. This years trips to different greenhouses in my area show me gravatating toward vegetable and herb plants and I wonder where I can find space to plant them. Last year I depended on my cousin, Dennis, to supply me with tomatoes and he didn't disappoint me. He planted over 40 tomato plants and every one preformed better than their tags predicted. I picked up a wheelbarrow full of tomatoes toward the end of summer and put them in the freezer. My vegetable soup was the envy of the neighborhood.

Before I could do more than fiddle with my emerging bulbs and dream about a vegetable garden I filled a three-tier planter, that sits on the deck and is protected from cool nights, with kitchen herbs and they promise fresh flavor in my cooking.

Happy Gardening!