It's springtime in New England! Or is it?

I find that the more I get into gardening, the more I feel the need to rant about New England weather. It's April 9th; I've been to my first Red Sox game (sure sign of spring!) but had to wear several layers and wool socks. Next day, bang!, it's 60 degrees. Weather for the upcoming weekend? Rain, and temperatures back down into the 40's...

Ok, so maybe this girl that grew up in much warmer weather can't deal with Mother Nature's mood swings...or maybe she can, but she's just inpatient to get out there and get growing. Peas are planted and have sprouted; lettuce seeds were sown last Sunday, only to get rained on hard the next day (note to self - check the weather forecast before planting outside).

Hopefully, with dear husband's help (who gracefully covered the planted areas with row covers during the first downpour, after I phoned him in a panic from work on Monday), we will still grow lettuce in raised rows and not end up with a whole bed of mesclun mix...but if we do, that wouldn't be a bad thing either. I just can't wait for them to sprout and see where the seeds ended up in the raised bed.

By the kitchen door, the herb garden awaits new seeds and plants. The chives are up and the sage and oregano are greening up...I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the tarragon in the backyard garden...while turning the soil and cleaning the beds on Sunday with hubby, I looked up just in time to see him pull the whole plant off the ground, thinking it was dead, instead of dormant...3 year old plant, time to divide it anyways, but it was done rather forcefully, nowhere near the gentle ways I treat most of my plants.

The flower beds will be next...need to clean those up and divide all the hostas by the driveway. And there's lots of them, pretty old too...we've been in the house for three years and I have a feeling the previous owners didn't spend enough time dividing perennials. And the rhodies that were affected badly by winterkill...need to get someone to take a look at them too.

So I e-mailed my garden lady, who last year had a small crew take out about 12 small bushes around the foundation, cleaned the mailbox bed by pulling an old overgrown, creeping juniper that I couldn't figure out how to make look better, and pulled the roots off that belonged to four half dead arborvitae that my husband had cut down from the back of the garage with his chainsaw.

So yes, it is springtime. Cleaning the yard, sprucing up the grounds, planning for new veggie beds, dreaming of grilling and eating fresh produce from our garden...it's the yearly ritual, a circle that will repeat itself over and over, year after year. And the weather? Well, that's just so New England. You don't like it? Wait a minute, blink, and it will change.