As I sip coffee, I am watching the snow fall. Yes, we get snow in May. No gardening around here till the end of the month or the beginning of June. When the snow melts, we have some cleaning up to do and finish mulching because the weather has NOT been cooperative at all this spring.

Gardening is something I enjoy on a small scale but it is about to get a litte bigger because this spring in gale force winds, snow and rain my neighbors on two sides have taken down trees and shrubs that are so old that they strattled the property lines. They were in need of removing because of a tornado like storm that blew through a couple of summers ago and the trees were dead, dying or leaning over like they were going to fall. It is bittersweet.

This property where I live has been part of my life for over 30 years. It always had a densely wooded, natural border with trees that the elderly lady, who lived next door in the late 1990s , said her father planted over 100 years ago. They were cedar trees from local swamps and totally inappropriate for in town planting. She cried when my Dad tried to trim them years and years ago when my parents lived in the house. She was 90 then and has since passed. Her tears stopped my Dad from doing too much aggressive trimming and removing of the trees because they were important to her because she grew up in the house is my understanding.

We took down the dead ones, cleaned up the branches on the property line best we could over the years and finally the ones on the neighbors property are gone. Our yard is completely exposed to the neighborhood on the front and back as that property line is a parking lot for the private school next door. I feel totally exposed now. My quirky garden that was semi private is totally out there for the world. It is covered in a bit of snow but it will be on full display soon.

I am making it quirkier. There are hollow stumps on my property. They will be new fairy gardens. We will have so much more sun and the whimsical planting should go crazy and I plan to have even more cottage style bee and bird friendly plantings. I want to add a bird feeder, a bird bath, bug hotels and bat houses because all of their habitat is gone now. They say each tree supports 200 species. Well we lost about a dozen over the years and I don’t want to lose the wildlife completely.

I know fantasy fairy gardens with quirky upcycles and cottage style plantings aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but it is mine and I plan to make the most of this opportunity and to make something fun to enjoy as I sit in the garden or look out my window at it. This is the time to reinvent the space as it will get lots of sun and I can plant things that I never could before. I can still keep woodland vibe going. It will be interesting this summer as we each go out to enjoy our gardens and can actually see each other in the neighborhood. I am not sure I am going to like that because I liked my secret garden very much, but it is time to embrace change and make it even better than it was before.

Vicki