The bulbs I plant in the fall sometimes don’t make it through the winter, but the potted bulbs I get from the grocery store in January always do. I finally figured out that happens because bulbs with fully grown foliage usually get planted at the required depth.

Most of the hyacinths that dress up the garden year after year have spent a few weeks on the window sill in the kitchen. Two days ago, deceived by the summer like weather, I took the opportunity to plant this year’s batch of potted bulbs in the garden, and I don’t think they are too happy to be there right now, but they’ll be coming back next year. Who knows, with a little luck they might even bloom again before the end of spring.

Yesterday a thick rain washed the garden clean, wiped the skies clear and periwinkle blue and brought with it a rainbow. I took a walk through the garden after the rain and I could already see the tips of violets peeking through the ground, despite the fact that it’s so early still. The drumming of the rain lulled me to sleep and was shocked to wake up to a snowy landscape, my heart still dreaming of summer.

I long for the rain, the morning sunshine in June, the song of the nightingale before dawn, the lightning, the thunder, the sound of the breeze ruffling the leaves, the scent of heated grass on sweltering afternoons. There is no saving grace to winter, what a pointless season!

Yesterday, for a few blessed hours, I remembered summer, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered it, and I wished it lingered, but it seems one can’t have June in February, no matter how much one might wish.

Author's Bio: 

Main Areas: Garden Writing; Sustainable Gardening; Homegrown Harvest
Published Books: “Terra Two”; “Generations”; "Letters to Lelia", "Door No. 8", "Fair"; "A Year and A Day"; "The Plant - A Steampunk Story"
Career Focus: Author; Consummate Gardener;
Affiliation: All Year Garden; The Weekly Gardener; Francis Rosenfeld's Blog

I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born this way: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might find it useful in their own gardening practice.