Smells of Spring

Sweet Daughter and I got home today and did some work in the yard. She dug holes, and I transplanted a bunch of stuff. I am not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination, but I have a pretty good herb garden going, and I’m working on getting more 18th century appropriate plants put in. A coworker gave me two big pots of lemon balm, I moved a volunteer Redbud tree, a Rose of Sharon, and a bunch of Tansy to more appropriate locations.

Here is what I learned today.

1. A pair of leather gardening gloves is in order. I don’t know what that shrubbery is with the reddish leaves growing by the shed (Japanese Barberry – thanks Google!), but some thorns are the diameter of my darning needles and got caught in my hair and clothes, and some are microscopic and the scratches felt like I’d been bitten by hundreds of tiny wasps. I was not amused.

2. Don’t trust church ladies. The nice one at garden club fundraiser two years ago told me that tansy wouldn’t spread and take over my garden. She lied was mistaken. I bet if there was a grudge match between the tansy and kudzu, the tansy might actually win. Or at least would end up with a “both mangled and killed” result.

3. The yard is lovely when the azaleas, dogwood, camellias AND lilacs are all blooming. It’s lovely enough that I can even ignore all the zombie dandelions ("Laaaawn … we want laaaawn …"). The scent of lilac is like springtime distilled.

4. Bacon and eggs makes a great dinner when you’ve been outside too long, you’re all starving, and have to get dinner on the table fast.

5. While bacon and lilacs each have a wonderful aroma, they don’t go together so well. Frying bacon with the jug of lilacs sitting next to them was a bit… interesting. Sort of like burning plastic, actually.