On this date last year I had my garden planted.  The onions, broccoli and lettuce were well on their way to a bumper crop.  This year we had an exceptionally long Spring.  Lots of rain and extended cold have prevented me from working in the garden as much as I’d like.

An eternal optimist, I still have hopes, dreams as well as plans to extend the garden.  In addition to growing the  vegetables necessary for canning salsa and spaghetti, and my usual salad section, I wanted to try my hand at soybeans or edamame as folks call it these days.  I also wanted to increase the number of broccoli and beans I plant so I could freeze them for consumption during the winter months.

In the perennial gardens that surround my teeny tiny Tudor I added more tulips last fall.  I’d also collected and dried flowers from my friend Jim’s beautiful annual garden so that I could plant the seeds which I’d tediously removed from his flowers  and add these specimens to my own floral beds.

Like my life, like the old house I live in,  and indeed like Darwin proclaims, I’ve learned gardening is iterative and ever changing.  Today served as an example of this “home grown” theory .  I awoke this morning to find Chagall, my Alaskan Malamute, snuggled up to me in bed.  I figured it must still be raining as she normally chooses to sleep outside.  When I felt the cold breeze coming through the slightly opened window and realized it wasn’t raining I got up to see what the weather was like.

April 26th 2008 will be remembered for the snow I saw falling outside.  Enough had actually accumulated to cover the ground with a thin layer of the white stuff.   Still wearing my PJs I raced downstairs to grab a jacket and slip into my rubber garden clogs so I could take a closer look.  There they were … my beautifulwhite tulips in full bloom covered by a blanket of snow.  At that moment I knew I needed to rethink my garden plans and take ACTION against our harsh Spring weather.  Longing for Spring as I do every year, I decided if I couldn’t have Spring outside I would bring it inside.  I clipped a couple dozen tulips and made 5 beautiful arrangements for the house.

The snow is still falling as I write this post but inside my home I am surrounded by the first signs of Spring.  While I can’t spend  today planting outdoors, I’ve decided to begin sowing seeds indoors instead.  Snow on April 26th is unusual even here in Minnesota. To have the garden of my dreams means to adapt to weather and preserver in spite of local conditions.  I won’t give up and I won’t give in. I’ll just enjoy part of this Spring indoors and continue preparing for the time I can garden outdoors.

Cindy Lou