March 2001
"You look like the breath of spring!"
"You look like the breath of spring!"
That would be quite a compliment, but as country-comedian Minnie Pearl liked to tell it, "What he actually said was, 'It looks like you just came through a long, hard winter!'"
However you came through the winter, spring is finally upon us once again! I'm not sure if I remember what it is that a young man's thoughts are supposed to do this time of year, but for older Minnesotans, springtime is always a season of special rejuvenation and rebirth.
When we think of spring, we think of flowers - we all do. This is both a phenomena and gift of nature, but it seems that with age we come to appreciate our flora more, and somehow equate it with all life and give it almost mystical qualities.
"Irises are the first flowers of spring... crocuses, daffodils, and, of course, tulips," says a dear friend from Cambridge. "And nothing says Minnesota like Lilacs!" she gushes.
Actually, I'm partial to rhubarb, but I like my flowers more and more as the years go by, and rows of color separating the beans, greens, tubers and taproots wouldn't be a bad idea.
I asked her about local planting seasons for both flowers and vegetables. "My grandfather used to always plant potatoes on Good Friday, it was the way old people did it," she answered. That's a great local custom, but they keep moving that day from month to month and after having had a wedding anniversary on that "date" once, I know how much trouble that can cause!
Using the experience and wisdom of age, I turned to plan-B for more practical information and came across a marvelous program that I think many older Americans, not just Lake Minnetonkanites, can, and should, really enjoy. It's called the Master Gardener program.
Administered through the State Office in the Minnesota Landscape Aboretum, the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota, the Master Gardener program offers area residents the opportunity to volunteer ("50 hours the first year and 25 hours annually thereafter"), and appears to be a wonderful way to both learn and share your enjoyment of those things that grow in the earth.
Besides, they have a fairly inexpensive national conference coming up. The Master Gardener Conference and Trade Show will be held May 28-June 1 at the Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort, and that ain't all bad.
Of course, just hanging out at the arboretum in Chanhassen would be a great way to spend some time this spring and throughout the year, because, face it - flowers grow ... and so do people. But flowers, with all their intrinsic beauty, remain locked in the eye of the beholder. They only blossom and grow more magnificent when we share them through our knowledge and joy with others.
If you'd like to add something to your life and to the lives of others this spring, call your local County Extension Office. They are the folks who will accept and enroll you.
More information is available online at http://www.hort.agri.umn.edu/MG/mastgard.htm, or by calling Linda Wasem, the Master Gardener Program Secretary, at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum at 952-443-1442.
If this idea doesn't grow on you, at least take the time this spring to stop and smell the roses. We'll all be glad that you did.
Henry Sublette is now in his eighties, slightly bent and slow of gait. His hearing isn't what it use to be and I've watched him read - twisting in the light to recast the shadows that fall across the page and his eyes.