Mrs Murfins Country Life
Loving the Good Life
Seeds
We humans seem to have a need to categorize other humans. We define each other by our colour, religion, gender, sexuality, and more options than may be necessary. It’s sad really because all humans are essentially identical as a species and at the same time made up of so many factors that we are all unique. Sometimes it is how we are born, and sometimes it is the choices we make. But there is really only one difference that truly matters.
You are either a person who gets really excited by the arrival of seed catalogues – or you are not. If you are not, feel free to move along, this may not be the blog for you.
It is the bright spark of hope that keeps me going during the dismal days right after Christmas. Leafing thorough the colourful pages, scribbling notes, calculating space and growing time, staring at the dormant space that will be full of life again in just a few months.
I don’t claim to be any kind of expert gardener. I rather hope that I make up for lack of skill with my enthusiasm and wonder. I am simply amazed when things grow, in awe when I pull a carrot from the soil. Every new season offers a chance at renewal, new growth and possible experiments.
For the first few years here at the Hedgehog Hill I marvelled at all of the plants and bushes and trees we inherited with the property. Last year we finished much of the structure which is home to the veg garden. Next year we will be adding more soft fruits, moving the lilies (I know absolutely nothing about lilies), and building a new garage that will offer opportunities to change the landscape again.
It is the chance to do it all over again that excites me. And there is another place where you are one kind of a person or the other. You either like things to stay the same or you like the change. I would have pegged myself as a stay-the-same person about most things. But in nature and in the garden that is simply not possible, plants are on a life cycle much like ours. They have their seasons…turn, turn, turn ….
So you have no choice but to adapt. The trees will get taller, the annuals live up to their name and need re planting every spring, even the perennials may need dividing or pruning.
I made a mistake when planting bulbs a few years ago, I stretched them along an edge, when what I really wanted was bunches of them here and there. I meant to move them last fall, but didn’t. I expect it will bother me again this spring and I will make a note to myself to move them. But does it really matter? The daffodils and tulips fight through the snow and bloom and I love them anyway…even all in a row.
I thought when I started writing this there would be some kind of moral to the story, but I can’t think of one. I also can’t find the Stokes catalogue and I need to compare seeds and varieties and prices. But no hurry, I have all winter to consider.
Ahhh I found it intime to change the picture. Also snow just started to fall. There is time, there is time.
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Mrs Murfins Country Life 
Reading a Mrs Murfin Post is like a breath of spring even though winter has just begun. By the way I am a person who gets really excited about seed catalouges arriving!