It has been raining here for 3 days off and on. I noticed a fair number of uprooted trees due to the saturated earth and high winds as I traveled around town this weekend but I didn't think much rain had actually fallen until this morning when I looked out my bedroom window onto the lake that had formed in my backyard.
This storm reminds me of 2 other storms when my children were small. We had really heavy rainfalls that dumped tons of water on us in short periods of time causing the sewers to swell with so much water it backed up onto the streets transforming the landscape of our neighborhood into what looked like riverfront property. Both times I told my children to darn their rain gear and out we went to play. I took pictures with my camera and they laughed and squeeled pretending to be fighting the ravages of a hurricane. During the second storm, we blew up our child size water raft and used it to float down our street over and over, like sledding, only in water. I was later warned by neighbors that I should be careful of such antics because someone might report me to DYFUS. Hmmm I did notice that we were the only folks out playing in the rain.
Upon seeing my new swimming hole this morning, two emotions were immediately triggered, delight in the perfectness of the day, knowing that I would be digging in the dirt and fear of the possibility that this water might now be in my basement. I ran down to the basement as quickly as I could and just as I reached the top step of the basement stairs I heard the familiar sound of my sump pump humming along, evidence of it's functioning. Further investigation confirmed that the basement was indeed dry. So now on to enjoying the delight.
I back away from being described as a gardener but admit there is a rush of adrenalin that occurs when I hear we are expecting rain. My love of digging in the dirt has nothing to do with knowledge about the habitat, needs or care of plants. I plant what I want and hope for the best. Oh yes, I have learned a few things along the way such as where I shouldn't plant a tree and how to keep squirrels from digging up my tulip bulbs but there is no master plan for what I grow. I think there must be pheromones in the soil.
Gardeners to me are people with a vision, an idea or artistic view of what to plant, where and how to plant. They know how to grow the biggest, healthiest, and most beautiful plants. Gardeners know the names of the plants in their garden, when they bloom, soil conditions and what to feed which plant. For my lack of all the above, I do not consider myself a gardener. I just like to dig in the dirt. Sometimes I get lucky and things thrive. One true thing is that I am forever surprised and excited by what decides to grow in my yard.
I am told that I must be a gardener because I exhibit certain characteristics of gardeners like being happy about rain, keeping plastic tarps laid out in my trunk, (no not for dead bodies, to carry gardening supplies and plants which are always wet and usually dirty), urges to deadhead plants belonging to others and haggling with the customer service reps at the garden centers for the best price on end of season sale plants.
Whatever I am, I was definitely out there today, planting a couple of trees and pulling a few weeds.
For those of you who are interested (ahem ahem Farmer Brown), I have also started seedlings indoors and will have plants to share in 6 to 8 weeks. I have started zinnias, asters, sunflowers, tinctoria, hollyhocks,euphoribia, knautia, armeria, nasturtium, chinese lanterns, gaillardia, biden, dahlia and calendulas (I know only because of what is printed on the package).
Photos of tulips from last year's tulip fest in my front yard courtesy of Lauren
Thanks Lauren
