It's only early April, but global warming has given me a serious case of spring fever. It started last week when I knew I was going to give a speech to the Pennsylvania Land Conservation Association, about 10 minutes away from my favorite nursery, Waterloo Gardens, in Exton, PA. The speech was Friday night, so I took my truck to work with me and tried my hardest to get out of work in time to get to the nursery before I had to be at the event. Well, I got a bit of a late start, and halfway to Exton I realized I wasn't going to have enough time to go to Waterloo. The sadness I felt driving my truck home later that night--empty--was enough to make me find an excuse to get mad at my husband and mope around for the next 24 hours.
My husband calls me a plant pig, and he's right. I just can't get enough plants. Yes, I love to vegetable garden, but my true love is landscaping--creating and even painting with plants. I love to interact with nature over time, see what takes and what doesn't, and watch with surprise as nature always improves on my ideas.
Sunday, I finally got to two of my favorite local nurseries, Herbein's and Kuss Brothers (neither of which is organic, unfortunately; nor is Waterloo). My husband had taken the truck to church with the kids (it's a car seat issue), so I had to take my Prius for both food shopping and nursery shopping. By the time I was done, the car was filled front-to-back with plants and food.
Fortunately, after a long spring nap on the couch outside and two strong cups of organic coffee, I planted all the plants, got good clean dirt under my nails, and made trout on the grill (fired with wood).
That's a good day!
I love this time of year. It's a lot of work cleaning up the yard from the winter. But it's good work--the kind that makes you a bit sore the next day and even stronger the day after that.
Next week, I'll tell you about the special garden I planted for Lucia!
For more from Maria Rodale, go to www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com.