Will April Showers Bring May Flowers?

March 11, 2013

While we may moan and groan about the inconvenience of clearing vehicles of snow, shoveling driveways, and dealing with speeding drivers who act like it is in the 70s and sunny, we can at least look forward to an abundant crop of flowers and vegetables this year.

Hopefully, our "sno-mageddon" will end the drought, and we can return to greener times. The slow seeping of the snow into the ground should give all of us hopefuls a much more fertile soil with enough busy little worms to survive the voracious moles of last year. Remember last year when so many plants just withered on the vines?

I know some people were successful with their production of tomatoes and peppers, etc., but rank amateurs, like I am, just didn’t stand a chance.

Even though I had started them inside, I could count on my fingers the total amount of peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes I harvested. As for my visions of lovely, aromatic basil-seasoned culinary delights, well, that never transpired.

I did have a bountiful container of nature’s own flowers and plants (aka, weeds). How is it that weeds and vines such as poison oak or ivy can flourish during a drought while what we plant and succor with care fail miserably?

This year, though, I am going to start raiding  MCPL’s considerable fount of horticultural know-how early and implement more of the experts’ tips and astound my friends and family with my newly acquired "green thumbs."

I also stumbled onto our Gardening, Landscape & Horticulture Collection database while on MCPL's Online Resource page. I would recommend it for my fellow beginners.

Now enough of this chatter. Let’s go play in the dirt!

Mary B.
Claycomo Branch