It's Just- Spring and the little seed order whistles far and wee...

Well, finally I got it together and ordered a few garden seed. Not my usual humongous order, just a few basics. The things I really need soon to start under the lights inside. Tomatoes and peppers mostly, and a few herbs, the rest will get seeded directly into the garden. Some things will come from the box of leftover seeds from last season that I keep cool in my cellar fridge.

My body is still fighting off the remains of this virus, and after a nap this afternoon; I sat down and ordered the basics I need to get started for the season. If I had been a little perkier, I’d have headed out to our small, local garden center to see what they have. At least, since they aren’t a Home Depot or a Lowes, they DO have some interesting seeds available, but I can never seem to count on them. Some years there is plenty of chervil and sorrel, other years nothing but Big Boys.

This is probably the first time I’ve bought so few seeds from the catalogs online and by mail. But last year I had such a revelation at The Philadelphia Flower Show that I want to save some of the limited space I have within the deer fencing for some more interesting things. There were several wonderful seed companies at the show with an astounding assortment of unusual varieties seeds available. Quite a few are heirlooms, and others are more common in other parts of the world than here. The show starts next week and runs through the following weekend and I hope to hit every seed company with a booth.

In my mind, there is a season called “Just Spring” –not an equinox or a calendar date, but when you can smell spring coming.  Things are growing, if not in the gardens, then in our minds. It's from this poem, and it's here.

[in Just-]

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

in Just-

spring          when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far          and             wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee