April in Iowa

Spring is in the Air

Warren is in the tractor preparing the soil for planting. Today is the beginning of another crop year, it marks the first day doing field work for another crop. It is a beautiful day. The sky is blue, the wind is ever so light, the sun is shining and spring has arrived.

Sage and Rhett in front of our corn field in the summer of 2007.

Back in 1979 I had my first real garden. With my husband in the tractor with the plow hooked behind it we started our first garden. Under my direction he plowed up a rather large spot in our side yard. Later I found out, years before the spot had been the farm dumping ground. That first year the vegetable part of the garden turned out surprisingly well. The spot I planted to wild flowers became an unrecognizable tangle of weeds and perhaps a wild flower or two. By midsummer I found myself crying over the mess I had created. I had followed the package direction of sowing the seeds randomly over the ground. Now maybe that method works for some but for this new comer to the world of gardening it was an unqualified failure. Next year I had success in starting a wild flower bed by planting the seeds in rows. With rows clearly defined, I was able to pull the weeds even if I could not differentiate between weeds and flower plants. That first year the garden was a bit structured but by the next year it was the wild flower bed I pictured in my mind. Three years to lovely.

Now, I consider myself a seasoned gardener. Not that my gardens are magazine quality. I confess that many others have much prettier gardens and I am a bit envious but never less I persist. I have plants, bulbs and seed in ready for planting this year. I once went to a garden workshop on good flowers to plant in Iowa. Out of a list of 75 or so I had planted all but two at one time or the other. That makes for gardens with lots of plant material but not with the most beautiful arrangement of plantings.