Awakening My Inner Gardener

It seems like just yesterday I was pulling out spent tomato plants & putting the garden tools away for the winter.  But here we are again- Spring and my inner gardener is awakened again.

SEED CATALOGS
They arrive like expected guests
In the days after the New Year
A steady parade of seed catalogs
All shapes and sizes
From varying corners of the country
Filled with beckoning colored photographs
Of fruit, vegetable, & bloom waiting to fill the garden
Ready to awaken the winter-weary to a fresh frame of mind
The possibilities of the planting season.

Some years I resist the seed sirens
But this year I succumb to their call
What magic can I coax from the soil this year?
Cardoons caught my eye- exotic relatives of the artichoke
Never seen nor tasted one
Live dangerously. I write its number down.
Then comes green beans. There are 35 different varieties
All with tantalizing descriptions. How to pick?
I choose a pole bean named Musica
“This magnificent pole bean produces a massive crop of huge tender beans over a long season…..”
How can I miss?
Onto an arugula named “Speedy”
Then the grand finale- melons!
Dare I plant melons in my NW Oregon soil?
I accept the challenge and pick an early cantaloupe
Then not one but TWO watermelons- an early variety
And the one named MOON & STARS (which I know is delicious).

The soil is tilled.
The seeds have all arrived
Sleeping in their tidy paper packets
Waiting to be planted
And I, having seemingly forgotten about leaf miners, aphids, and weeds,
As with my garden fatigue from last Fall
Can hardly wait for the show to begin.

Awakening