My gardening vacation begins today!

Each year since we moved into our house and I killed all the grass, I take a week off around the time of our kids’ spring break to fertilize, mulch, and dedicate myself 100% to getting the garden ready for warm weather and flowers. This year, that week starts today.

Originally I was going to take last week, but the timing was super awkward with my new job. I would have worked for one week at Support Driven, then taken a week off. Also, last week was very cold, and I would have had to dig the garden out from under snow. That is not how I want to spend my fun, spring-time gardening vacation.

By taking this week instead, I was able to get a solid two weeks of foundation in at SD. I had a productive two weeks of writing, wrangling, and strategizing before my giant piles of mulch were delivered on Thursday. Now, though I know there’s still a ton of work to be done to get ready for our Expo in June, I also know it’s in good hands with my coworkers and the amazing volunteers running things. I can hit the ground running again when I return.

Plus, I haven’t had time off since a quick four-day weekend on the Chesapeake in October. I’m desperate for a break. I’ve hardly taken any of the holidays off, except Christmas day and a couple of days at Thanksgiving, which we hosted, so it wasn’t truly a break. My brain is tired, and my body needs to be outside.

Right now there’s frost on the ground. The grass is a sparkling silver-green, and the mulch is like snow-dusted mountains. I’m drinking my coffee, listening to birds chirp. Robins hop around, looking for worms. They are going to be delighted today when I start digging up plants. They will feast on unearthed squirmy things.

A herd of ten deer is walking up the middle of our neighborhood lane as the sun rises. They live in the woods across the street. They’ve eaten all of my tulips.

I fear for my plants. The rabbits will chow down as well.

The weather is still not supposed to be as warm as I’d like it to be. It’s early yet in the year. But I don’t care anymore. I’ve got sweatshirts. For now, I’m just biding my time, waiting for the sun to get a little higher. For now, I’ll make lists of what I’m going to do first, what I’m going to move where, what I need to buy.

For now, I’ll sip my coffee in our silent house and watch the deer and the robins. I’m on vacation.