weeding flower beds

27 02, 2023

Scents of Spring and Dirt

By |2023-02-26T07:44:05-06:00February 27th, 2023|A Writer's Life|3 Comments

Spring must seem lost for many of you who are buried under mountains of snow from blizzards. Down here where I live, the scents of spring are already in the air. Green sprouts dot bushes and trees and temperatures are pushing eighty degrees…in February!

judythemorgan.com We spent a day clearing winter’s carnage of dead leaves and pine needles from the flowerbeds and unlocked the pungent earthy aroma of the black earth. I inhaled the promise of spring’s colorful blooms as the scent of dirt filled my senses.

Memories floated in my head.

~Helping my grandmother weed her gardens.

~Making dirt mud pies and cakes for my siblings to sample.

~Planting seedpods so my children could watch a plant sprout and then produce something edible.

~Hiking in the woods with the pungent smell of years-old decaying leaves and stumps.

I still enjoy feeling dirt. The texture of lumpy clumps of rich, moist black dirt on my hands, with maybe an earthworm wiggling through. Powdery dirt flowing through my fingers when the ground is dry. Gritty dirt dying on my jeans after I’ve wiped my hands.

The earthy smells and memories make me smile.

This morning tiny tentacles of green, freed from all that weight, pushed upward through the dirt. There’ll be another wave of winter and the weeds will return, I’m sure, but today I see the promise of spring.

If you’re looking at snow, hang on spring will come. It always does.

1 08, 2014

Inspiration and Destruction – Miller Farm Friday

By |2014-08-01T06:00:48-05:00August 1st, 2014|Guest blogger, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A guest blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Inspired by our recent vacation in Colorado, I decided to do something about our flower beds.  They had become unrecognizable.

I really hadn’t noticed until we spent time at my parents house where they had just completed some wonderful landscaping.

Just because there weren’t beautiful mountains surrounding our house, that didn’t mean we couldn’t have other kinds of beauty – or at least some order.

I chose a small planter-type bed at the front porch and began.  It had rained several times during the week so the ground was nice and soft and there was a cool front keeping the temperatures within reason.

before 1Our neighbors had dwarf yaupon holly bushes  they didn’t want so I moved them into our flower bed to replace the ones that had died. It was a long day but well worth it.

after 1 What do you think?

I was so excited about the results I decided to tackle the bed in front of the newly weeded bed next. It was a two day project.

before 2As I pulled weeds, and pulled weeds, and pulled weeds, I uncovered several different types of insects — spiders, ants, snails, and roly-poly bugs. I even found a small lizard.

I felt somewhat guilty about destroying their habitat and hoped no one contacted the IPS (Insect Preservation Society). I figured I could justify the process as home improvement for bugs.

Our neighbors had gotten a trailer full from the city and had used all they needed. They were to thrilled to have their trailer emptied.

I thought the weeding would be the hardest part until I started moving mulch. I lost count of the number of wheelbarrows full of mulch I hauled across the yard. after 2Once again the result was well worth the effort.

Today I am staying inside and resting the muscles I didn’t know I had that have hurt since Sunday.

Hopefully by Saturday I’ll be ready to tackle the next bed.

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