Signs of Spring

We did a Get Up Get Out episode on the early signs of spring. Those little things that we see in nature that indicate winter’s on its way out. It’s the return of the birds and chipmunks; the buds on the trees and plants in the garden just beginning to bloom. So that’s what the plants and animals do, but what about our own signs of spring? The first one for me came about 8 o’clock this morning when I applied a bag of fertilizer to the lawn, what they call a pre-emergent. To the uninitiated consumer, it’s the application that takes place in early spring, designed to kill crab-grass before it starts growing.

You don’t really notice crabgrass until July when the rest of the lawn goes brown. It’s only then you find out that have to kill it before it starts growing. Huh? Well, the man does work at English Gardens so he must know what he’s talking about. So to prove you can never stop learning, you remember to apply the crabgrass killer the following year. Of course the man says, you can’t kill it all in one year… so three years and $150 later, you’re pretty sure that you have less than you did before.

Another brilliant sign of season was the emergence of my neighbor, who at exactly 8:05 a.m. was standing in my yard asking me what I was doing. I don’t know if he heard me cut open the bag or pour it into the broadcast spreader, but from three doors down, I must have been making a hell of a racket. I did learn from Bob that I should probably rake out my grass; pick up the fallen limbs and make my driveway bigger – either with concrete or asphalt. So he at least he was helpful.

The solace one finds in applying fertilizer is not exactly Himalayan, but it can be quite releasing. The free-wheeling vibe of the hand spreader is a vortex through which you can see the world in a whole new way. Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but the great thing about working the landscape life-plan is that the world slows down just enough that you can think about the things that you really want to do and there’s never enough time for that. And instead of putting my headphones in my ears as I normally do, today I was liberated by the sounds of nature and the morning doves welcoming each other back home.

Then, as I went back into the house, the familiar smell of Hazelnut coffee and Windex told me that Wendy was now up and assuming control of daily operations. I had prepared myself to welcome my family to the day; to speak of my great and humbling work and to let them know that while they were sleeping I had again, made our world safe from crabgrass.

But like all great agrarians, I’m nothing if not flexible. Wendy informed that in fact, she’d not been sleeping; told me of all the things she’d accomplished while I was “wandering around outside” and, finally, that I should pull her car closer to the house because she didn’t want her high heels to sink into the muddy grass. And I guess for some that’s another sure sign of spring.

Fred Nahhat is Director of On-Air Fundraising for DPTV