By the time the blistering heat finally let up last fall, it was almost all I could do to clean up the heirloom tomato vines and a ridiculous overpopulation of patty pan squash and prep the experimental garden for this season.
A few cool days allowed me to expand the planting areas with new straw bales. I dug huge bags of worm castings into beds that this year I hope will yield more than three ears of red corn.
I thought about putting seed potatoes in, but I was tired of the vegetable garden and the flower beds and the fruit trees in desperate need of pruning. I let the foot-deep layer of cottonwood leaves sheet into protection for the perennial border. And that pile of rocks intended to shape a shade bed out back? Please, little vole families, feel free to shelter there through the winter.
The gorgeous too-early spring days had me so focused on beehive maintenance and the onerous task of running two seasons of chicken bedding through the chipper shredder and turning it into the compost piles that all the getting-ready remains undone.
The punch list weighs heavy — saved seeds haven’t been set to sprout, the pea trellis is on the ground. But it doesn’t seem to be holding back the gardens.
Garlic carried back from Oregon last fall has filled long furrows with green. Hyacinths have shoved aside the rotting leaves in fragrant pops of pink and purple. Untended roses and lilacs are beginning to flush with new life.
I remain out of sync with the season, but the power of spring pushes on.
Dana Coffield: dcoffield@denverpost.com, 303-954-1954 or
