Intoxication

I cannot tell a lie. I've been inhaling quite a bit lately, and I feel pretty giddy from it. But it's really not my fault. The days here have been reasonably mild and a little breezy, so we've been keeping the windows and doors open. Growing on the wall of the house that forms one side of the Secret Garden is jasmine, and it is in full, glorious, intoxicating bloom. Just the slightest breeze carries that incredible scent wafting through the house. Turfman and I have been spending the weekend inhaling deeply and crying, "Oh, do you smell that?!" It's absolutely divine.

The wall of perfume

This is when the garden begins its full thrust of growth. It's a time of frenzied activity for the gardener, too. I have to keep up with the work to make sure the growth continues. I constructed my first compost tea brewer yesterday, and it's now bubbling away, hopefully making a magic elixir that I can spray on everything in the garden, including the turf. I'm determined to keep everything as healthy as possible this year, so I'm staying on top of weeds and keeping the compost moist and turned.

Plants that had retreated over the winter are now making themselves known again. What was previously a bare patch of earth is now getting filled in by plants that will jostle each other for room in the coming months. The weeping peach tree just opened its first flowers of the year over the weekend. It's hard to remember or imagine what that space in the garden will look like when the tree is in full leaf, so that's something else to look forward to.

First peach flower of the year

I find myself leaning out the windows as soon as I get up in the morning, checking to see what new things are happening in the garden. I'm a bit like a kid on Christmas morning every morning these days.  The presents just keep coming.

Don Juan is putting on a show

But it's time for me to get back in the garden this morning. My fingernails have been clean for several hours, and they're itching for some dirt to be stuffed under them again.