As I write this, I’m gazing out my window at the gently falling snow. Aggregations of flakes coat trees, bushes, and manmade structures like white fungus on a rampage. Spinning tires, stalled engines — ah, the joys of winter. For us gardeners, who like nothing better than to be out in the bright sunshine and warm weather carefully planting and cultivating our fruit and vegetable crops, it’s difficult not to feel a little depressed under these conditions.
But take heart! Rays of sunshine are piercing the gloom, and they are coming out of your mailbox! Postal sunshine, to warm a gardener’s heart on even a most miserable winter day.
I’m speaking, of course, about the gardening catalogs, those aggregations of glossy photos and glowing descriptions of new vegetable varieties and old favorites. Catalogs that for a few brief moments take our minds off of the desolation of winter and give us hope in a glorious spring of mild temperatures, gentle rains, and bright sunshine-filled days!
Sure, some of those photos are a bit too slick and those descriptions a bit overblown. But for the moment, we’re willing to believe anything they say. Because these catalogs give us hope that winter will not last forever and that before we know it, sunshine and warmth will eventually chase the white stuff away.
So peruse those catalogs, circle your selections, order those seeds, and dream green and sunshiny dreams. They will come true, I promise.
the garden troubadour 