A Difference a Day Makes, A Year

On Saturday one of my gardens was nearly clear of snow and the temperatures were climbing into the sixties.

Getting out in the sunshine, feeling the warmth, using my muscles, cleaning up the debris, moving the rocks - so energizing.

By Sunday the temperatures soared into the seventies and I was able to work in the garden.  

What a difference in my energy compared to being pregnant last spring.  I remember willing myself to just spend 10 minutes each day in the garden and how hard even that was with feeling terrible during those first five months of the pregnancy.   As I think back I wish I hadn't been so hard on myself and simply embraced the lousy feeling and gone for walks more and laid down to rest more, instead of making myself work in the garden.   I should have remembered last year that being pregnant was a short season.  And now that I am blessed with abundant energy again, I need to remember to not overdue it, to give my body time to adjust each day to the physical work that it hasn't done for nearly two years.   

With a six month old and all the other demands in my life, the garden won't be expanded this year, instead I will work to improve what we have.  It felt amazing to jump on the shovel yesterday and lift a full load of soil and to sift my fingers through it removing the roots that don't belong anymore.  The garden above was filled with a type of cover plant and each year I work to clear more of the roots.

Soon, we will visit our neighbor's compost pile and spend the day bringing loads to our little homestead to cover our gardens again, and this year, for the first time, we will turn it over with a tiller to combine the old with the new.  I avoided doing it yearly to minimize compaction and disruption of the soil by only tilling when absolutely necessary.  And then in just a couple more weeks, the first seeds will be planted.

What a blessing to start anew each spring.

Warm wishes,

Tonya