Hope "Springs" Eternal

By Dad

You may have thought I seemed a little, shall we say despondent in my last post.  I'll admit it.  I was feeling a little down, watching the snow blow off the roof  and drifts finger there way over the driveway.  But now things are looking up.

Say, what's that under the coffee table?  Ho, ho, a bunch of seed and nursery catalogs.  I have been perusing the fine garden selections available to me via mail order.

Ahh, what wonders dance in my head, the winter garden dream.  A fantastic garden, free of weeds.  Row upon row of healthy vigorous plants, you know, like in the catalog.  Gigantic piles of beans, twenty foot tall cornstalks and endless bushels of tomatoes.

Remember that really old Porky Pig cartoon where he plants seeds, then squirts some fertilizer in the ground with a pesticide duster thingy and everythings grows immediately and then he has to fight the crows for the harvest?  I always liked how the crows ate the cobs of corn like an old manual typewriter.

My winter garden dream is like that, except the crow part.  I don't have any weeds or long dry spells or hornworms that can defoliate an entire tomato plant in one morning.  I am also not bothered by leggy transplants or blossom end rot or striped cucumber beetles.

Considering how my garden actually looks by mid July, I figure gardens are like puppies or babies, we only remember the good parts and eagerly plan another.  For now, please don't wake me lest the garden of my dreams evaporates and drifts away.