Taking a break from all that

There is a breath of spring in the air this weekend and I am caught up in it all over again. Year after year its the same, though I have to say that it's more cyclical, and therefore there's more of a build up, a tension and an excitement about it here where there are four seasons than where I've come from. Winter hasn't been especially harsh here this year, but I am getting weary of waking up to the sound of my ancient furnace roaring and letting the dogs out to find that once again, the thermometer reads 20 degrees. That's been the 5:30 AM temp for what seems like forever at this point. I am longing for green, for spring, for buds unfurling and for flowers. Longing.

So today was a happy surprise. Days are generally tolerable here in Santa Fe. Even in the dead of winter with snow deep on the ground, you can find yourself too warm in the sun (though the wind can bite - and bite hard). Dressing at any season here is defined by the layers you wear, and I always wear layers. Like Shrek. Like an onion. But, today I peeled those layers off, baby. It was sweet and it was so beautifully warm. Little green things are poking up through the red clay and though that's a bit worrisome, what with the possibility of snow for another month yet and almost certainly of at least one killing frost, that bit of green is very welcome! I woke early and made a list of 'things to do today' and the first thing I did was go to the garden center to look at seeds. In light of the economy, our family's love of good food, and the joy of gardening in general, I am determined to have a vegetable garden this year. Now, I live in a townhouse with a pretty small yard frequented by two rowdy dogs, and New Mexico is known for the layer of rock hard caliche that lies waiting under the soil, so I've been struggling to get a grasp on how to make things grow here (other than sagebrush, tumbleweed, and juniper) for 4 years with only sporadic success. BUT! I have gone back to what served me well in Florida, which was also plagued - but with poor soil, oppressive humidity (wouldn't you know I move to the desert next?), and nematodes - and what worked is....container gardening.

I spent this afternoon sitting in my brown, twiggy, dry garden trying to remember the play of summer sun and shade in my back yard, reading The Bountiful Container, a wonderfully informative book about vegetable gardening in containers, and making lists of veggies I want to try. I have a plan, folks.

From there, I went on to begin reading a book by Wendy Johnson, who has had a long running column in Tricycle magazine on Zen and gardening and who helped found the organic garden at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Marin County, California back in 1975. It's a great read for any gardener: Gardening at the Dragon's Gate; at Work in the Wild and Cultivated World. Check it out if you haven't.

Now I am really psyched. Unfortunately, our last frost date is something like May 26 and it's only February.... but I can dream and I will plan and I tell ya folks, this year, I'm going to have a garden.