Spring Is A New Beginning

One Easter over 30 years ago (okay, 1965) Honey and Grandad, my maternal grandparents, gave me a small book called Spring Is A New Beginning with text and pictures by Joan Walsh Anglund. It sits on my bookshelves next to the Winnie the Pooh books (original illustrations, not the Disney version, thank you), a book of Mother Goose Rhymes, and a couple of other books from my childhood. It long ago lost its original paper cover. It's 36 pages pair Anglund's whimsical drawings with a handful of sentences about Spring. Pulling it off the shelf and paging through it brings back childhood memories and promises of new things to come.

"Then the earth is rich with seedlings."

The illustration on the page facing this sentence shows a little girl planting a garden. During my childhood, a sure sign that Spring would return was the arrival of the Burpee Catalog in Mid-Winter. Every year Mom and I spent hours paging through the catalog and planning our gardens. Some years we had a sizable garden, and other years we planted only a couple of plants. Some years we had no garden at all. No matter what we ended up planting, I always planned an herb garden.

I love the smells, textures and tastes of herbs. My interest in herbs, in part, stems from my interest in history. Whenever we visited a historical site that included gardens, I always wanted to spend at least a few minutes in the herb garden. The medicinal and culinary uses fascinated me then and still do today.

Every place I have lived I have had a small garden or a couple of pots of herbs. Spending a few minutes with the plants is a great way to unwind after a day at work, and I have fresh herbs to season my evening meal. Last year, however, I did not have a garden or pots of plants. My current apartment complex does not allow us to put things on our porches or along our walks. I have missed a garden. So this year, as Spring approached, I started thinking about the window in my back hall. It faces southwest, and receives a fair amount of sunlight during the day. A bookcase sits under the window to hold odds and ends. The top of the bookcase is large enough to hold a good-sized window box and a couple of pots. If I cannot have a garden outside, I can have one inside!

I think I am enjoying the planning almost as much as having the actual garden. Which plants can I put together in which containers? Which ones would I like to have for this garden? Do I want herbs for cooking or herbs for teas? Which scents would I most appreciate having around again? Which textures? I will compile a list of possibilities, but I will make my final choices during my annual pilgrimage to Gilberties.

"Then new life presses out
from every growing thing...
fulfilling our trust,
renewing our faith
that this has always been,
that this will be again..."

Happy Spring!

Peace,
Jeffri