Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Three weeks and counting. Spring 2022.
It cannot get here soon enough. I’m ready to trade the darkness of winter for more daylight, more warmth.
We can already see the ground sloughing off winter sleep and debris. Sadly, we can also see where a rogue rescue (Patches) dug up a couple of hibernating toads. It’s a yearly thing. She digs them up, and we re-plant them hoping for the best.
The raised beds (OK, old stock tanks) have been moved and rearranged. Some a few times. In a couple of weeks, we hope to have a makeshift greenhouse.
We’ve had different levels of success with our gardening. One year, I mixed up veggies and flowers; I threw together a salad out of pretty mixed greens that turned my husband and I into itchy, sneezy messes.
Turns out the mixed greens were pre-bloomed chrysanthemums. Garden fail.
I’ve planted tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers with zero luck. Maybe something would sprout enough for a bug to enjoy, but that was it. We planted lettuces (a big favorite with bugs), and arugula. We learned the hard way that letting arugula grow too long made it almost too peppery to eat.
For a few years now, we’ve been nursing along a raised bed made from old church doors. With each new hole, we patch and hope they’ll hold up one more season. Now, they’ll be torn down to make way for something new and better.
I already have the seeds for a pollinator patch, a monarch butterfly patch, and an insectary patch (says the person who’s not a fan of creepy crawlies). I’ve also got seeds for bumble bee primroses, assorted daisies, and a wide assortment of sunflowers.
Will they grow? Who knows? Half the fun of planting is waiting to see what will happen.
I’m hoping, too, that I can slough off winter sleep and debris, and let that stuff just blow away. I can replace that with new hope, new growth.
There’s a level of peace I find working in the garden. The quiet, the smell of the turned earth, the chance to just breathe it all in, and just be. I’ve worked a lot of problems out in the garden. It may not be great for the veggies, but it sure is good for my spirit.
Patti Dobson writes about faith for The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact her at: