In the general clean-up and winter recovery of my garden, the patterns of growth in gardens and humans bears a close resemblance. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, we had a late severe frost after an unusually warm winter. And that freeze cost us many things. As if to underline that climate change is gaining ground, many plants began to say so through confused responses to the unusual weather. In November there was warm weather. By December, many plants that bloom in the spring began to wake up. For Christmas, we had an early spring with bulbs beginning to bloom — tulips and primroses springing up. The hellebores began to bud.
But it was not to last. In late January, we had a hard frost that set everything back. Again, the seasonal clock was out of sync. Finally, the earth began to warm a little. My iris had a March of no growth and a subsequent resurrection in May. Somehow, the old apple trees had lived long enough to hide from the freeze. While they normally bloom around Easter time, they finally burst out in May. Now, in June, they are absolutely loaded with tiny apples.
As I cleaned up after the freeze, I noted that my fig tree appeared to have succumbed to the frost. A small Vitex bush appeared to be in a coma. Finally, in the last week of May, tiny leaf buds began to show and now I can see clearly that it is coming to life. I was prepared to cut down a dead fig tree, but to my astonishment, I am now seeing buds of leaves beginning to appear this week. Regardless of any already used analogy for Spring, To see those resilient tiny leaves saying: “I’ve survived” could bring hope to anyone who sees that life returning.
You can see Johnny Jump ups in a sidewalk crack, Fireweed blossoms after all is burned away, Green fields after a flood, as endless affirmations that life, even if it changes forms, is still life. It is beyond our power to manipulate or eliminate permanently. Our faith, our tales, regardless of source, grow in us. They are fed by eons of watching life return after hope was lost. Lost by fire, flood, ice, or the depredations of beast or men. Hope springs from the green re-birth after chaos and shouts “we’re still here” and you can’t do anything about it.