Spring

  The air was slight and gauzy one day, and leaden and damp the next as Spring fought to get a foot hold. Nevertheless, trees were beginning to leaf out as spring ephemerals faded, and plants were pushing forth green shoots and buds.   Unfortunately, weeds were only too quick to…

With May’s prudence and seeming benevolence, we will finally be able to exhale as warming temperatures mean we can soon begin to plant.  May, after all, means Mother’s Day, and Mother’s Day means flowers, so what better way to honor Mom than with native plants and flowers that are as…

Late April’s landscape was celebratory with sweet, blooming treats, from the tufts of cotton candy blooms of the Magnolia & Pear, to the spun sugar strands of the Red Bud & Prairie Smoke to the swaths of candy dots of the Vinca and Squill.  Spring was surely the pathway to…

  April has brought tumultuous weather –  from the sweet taste of Summer to the tannins of a lingering Winter.  All of this drama is part of the beauty of an awakening landscape.  It’s Spring in the Midwest, folks, and there’s lots to celebrate, and bemoan, to be fair. It’s…

For a moment, a small Spring puddle held the heavens in a hole in the asphalt.  The sweeping blue sky rippled in its hand.  The banal and ordinary became extraordinary.  Nature was again beckoning us outdoors into her captivating and therapeutic realm. Spending time in green spaces has been proven…

April showers bring?  What was it again?  Towers?  Hours?  No.  April showers bring intense Spring scours.  Yes, that’s a word, and yes, I had to look it up to make sure I was using it correctly.  Scours:  noun 1.  the action of scouring or the state of being scoured, especially by…

  The weather teetered between lovely and tumultuous as if someone, unknowingly, kept leaning against the light switch.  In a moment, a lovely Spring day became a stormy Winter day, and back and forth it went.  Nature’s apparent confusion would not sully the efforts of a landscape ready to burst…

  The once lethargic and hushed landscape became frenetic and boisterous with the jubilant sound of chirping and twittering birds who seemed to have a season’s worth of gossip to share. The squirrels too descended in mass from the trees to forage and romp. The landscape had come alive and…

  Spring ephemerals burst forth from the thawing ground as swelling buds adorned the trees. Whether March comes in like a lion or a lamb seems insignificant now, as Spring is well on her way. Along with Spring Clean Ups and Lawn Renovations, we must turn our attention to one…

Like a receding glacier, Winter began to wither and melt, leaving behind a scarred and battered landscape.  Its tenuous grasp was loosening, and its legacy becoming more apparent, but March would surely deliver us unto Spring. Spring officially arrives March 20th, and Winter will be nothing more than a distant,…

  February arrived with sun upon her shoulders but winter upon her lips.  Although the groundhog predicts another six weeks’ of Winter (no real surprise), there is a glimmer of hope, an inclination that the season of renewal is not so very distant.  The distinct and dulcet tones of the…

Early February was teasing us with burgeoning bulbs and warmer-than-should-be weather.  It was, though, a great reminder of the power and promise of Spring.  Soon the muddied, desolate earth would be replaced with color and life, and the barren trees would fill the sky with their lush canopies. In order…