I had a chance to join a group of local writers in the past few months. It was fascinating to spend time in a group with the singular desire to share ideas through writing. Yet, every one of us had a different approach to bringing our personal work to life. Although I have been sharing my daily exploits in the garden with The Columbian readers for 14 years now, it is rare for me to sit face to face with other writers as they read through some of my favorite garden columns from the past.
The consensus among my writing friends is that reading about gardening made them want to get out in the garden. They were especially compelled to be a part of the gardening community after reading about the reality of gardening in the Pacific Northwest. They could all agree that when we garden, we experience similar feelings and emotions of other gardeners. In the process, we connect. On that note, I agreed to revisit a few of my favorite spring columns and share them anew with my most loyal and loving readers and friends.
As gardeners, we spend a lot of time out in the elements. We are immersed in a passion for gardening and so we garden in all types of weather. Some would say, “In spite of the weather,” but they don’t look at gardening in the way that we gardeners do. If truth be told, many of us feel as if we were as much a part of this garden world as the trees and flowers that we tend. How, then, could we consider the weather anything but a gift to the garden?
Our Pacific Northwest weather is anything but predictable. Between early morning and late evening on a mid-spring day, it’s not unusual to experience pouring rain, periods of gray sky and afternoon sun breaks that clear to T-shirt weather. Those of us who garden regularly dress in layers, optimistically hoping to leave a trail of discarded outerwear behind us as we go about our day.
Yet, as unpredictable as our weather is, it’s really quite predictable. The weather doesn’t always give us what we may think we want, but in the long run, it’s obvious it gives us what our gardens need. In the midst of drizzle, we look around our gardens and see the dazzling results. Our winter temperatures are cold enough to assure spring and summer flowers on daffodils, lilacs, hydrangeas, viburnums and peonies, yet our lawns stay predominantly green from October to May without once lifting a hose.
Sure, it rains here more than a lot of other places. Yes, it is chilly during winter and we have come to expect a bit of cloud cover to hang around at least until the 4th of July. What good is a parade without a bit of rain? But the plants seem to love it and they grow. Everything grows beautifully and that may explain why we continue to garden amid what some would call unreliable weather.
When you think about it, it’s something like life itself. As soon as you find yourself in a comfort zone, you realize that you’ve been riding out the eye of a storm. The other side of the hurricane is just waiting to strike. We say we want variety in our lives and in our gardens and then we squirm at the first sign of a change in the weather. It’s a fact that our gardens need the sun as well as the rain. By the look of it, we get enough of both.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I should have to start dragging a hose around the garden in mid-April or even May. While everyone around me begs for more sunshine, I nod my head in thanks at the first sign of clouds. And so I try to remind myself, on days when it is raining, when I would prefer it to be dry, that perhaps a gardening neighbor of mine put in some new plants the day before and it’s her turn to get a little break from above.
Until you learn to let water run off your back, like native gardeners do, may I suggest you buy yourself a good hat with a wide enough brim to keep the rain off your face and shoulders and the sun out of your eyes? It’s not like we’re going to be stuck with the same weather for the rest of the year. Wait a couple of hours; you might get exactly the weather you’ve been hoping for.
Robb Rosser is a WSU-certified master gardener. Reach him at Write2Robb@aol.com.
