Sometimes it's OK to get your hands dirty.....

   After what has seemed like weeks of an extended winter, we have finally hit a few days of more Spring-like conditions and I took advantage of the warmer weather to work in the garden. It's not a big garden, some flowers, vegetables, a few blueberry and raspberry bushes and herbs, lots of herbs. The garden is just big enough to keep me busy and put some fresh veggies on the table during the summer.
   It's sometimes fun to get your hands dirty, in a clean sense, that is. On a sunny day, the soil feels warm to the touch and rich with the energy the earth has to offer as the dirt moves between your fingers. No garden gloves here. Get down and dirty! Sorry about the stains in the knees of my pants, though.
   Armed with my hoe, a rake, my trusty old wheel barrel and several different size shovels.... it was off to work and the next three days were busy cleaning, cultivating, mulching and planting. (Like hammers, one can never have too many shovels!)
   The mid-week weather forecast was for rain over the weekend so my goal was to get most of the work done before the weekend rains and after a few long days, I was done. It was time to kick back, open a cold one and let Mother Nature do her work now.
   If one stops to think, there is a great deal of symbolism in planting a garden and watching it grow and even as early as grade school, planting a seed or two in a paper cup was suppose to instill an importance and understanding of nature. And if one were really lucky, within a week or two, a small green bean plant would emerge from the soil and we would all race home to show our parents what we had achieved.
   Come to think of it, that seemingly simple classroom activity may have been good practice for planting seeds in those starter sets in early March and in some cases, the results back then in the classroom were exactly the same as now. Despite all my efforts and tender loving care...nothing! Oh well. (It was the seed company's fault. Bad seeds.)
   For the next few weeks my hope is for just the right amount of rain, warm sunny days and no late season frost at night. Until then, it's watch and wait. Perhaps it was either Peter Paul and Mary, John Denver or Maine's own Dave Mallett who said it best in song: 

                              * The Garden Song *

 Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones, we are made of dreams and bones,
I feel the need to grow my own 'cause the time is close at hand.
Grain for grain, sun and rain, I'll find my way in nature's chain,
I tune my body and my brain to the music of the land. 
Inch by inch, row by row, I'm gonna make this garden grow. All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground. 
Inch by inch, row by row, someone bless these seeds I sow. Someone warm them from below 'til the rain comes tumbling down. 
So plant your rows straight and long, temper them with prayer and song. Mother earth can keep you strong if you give her love and care.
Now an old crow watching hungrily from his perch in yonder tree. In my garden I'm as free as that feathered thief up there.
Inch by inch, row by row, I'm gonna make this garden grow. All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.
Inch by inch, row by row, someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below 'til the rain comes tumbling.
Inch by inch, row by row, someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below 'til the rain comes tumbling down.”

For anyone interested, the song can be heard and viewed on YouTube, just search "The Garden Song."

And he sure looks better without the snow.. wouldn't you say!