Reviving the Neglected:

As Spring is rapidly sprung across the land and Stepford barrels head-long into the season with domestic plants and sidewalk weeds alike bursting into flower, I am starting to take stock of my own garden which I have neglected over winter.

The truth of the matter is while I aspire to be a gardener, I have essentially a black-thumb, and I have almost a second side of me that is compelled to murder plants, usually through neglect.

So taking stock of how my plants had fared over the winter month recently was something of an edifyingly shameful experience. After six months of neglect the fairer plants in the collection had died off rather spectacularly, and those that had survived were in a fairly sad state. My culinary herbs required the most TLC. The hearty rosemary is fine if a little perturbed and dry, but the Marjoram and Oregano are both cowed and shrunken looking things, more dead twigs than green leaves. The Thyme has given up altogether and died, and my poor little sage plant looks like a scraggly recovering meth-addict. The Feverfew, while not strictly culinary, was not doing the best at all and only splashed of green could be seen amongst the curled brown leaves the shrouded the stems.

The more esoteric herbs had faired a great deal better over the winter months. My dwarf white Foxgloves had positively flourished, perhaps as a result of the deceased Wattle Bird buried beneath their roots. The Catnip had never looked healthier and had already begun to grow new Spring leaves. My Angelica plant, while small in stature, remained healthy and green. And then of course there was my Tobacco Plant. He was originally planted by my partner, which we then ripped up but did not get all of. There was a root branch left in the ground and from that the colossal plant rose. His leaves eventually curled and browned over winter, but as I was fertilising him over the entire duration of winter with water from a pig's skull I am macerating; he seemed to escape largely unscathed.

Best of all were the wild weeds who have forced themselves in through the fence and the lawn. The St. John's Wort that grows besides the back door is already twice the size that it was last year, and I cannot wait for it to flower. I really was to transplant it into a pot but I'm just not sure how it will go. Several Patterson's Curse or Viper's Bugloss plants have already sprung up in the yard promising beautiful flowers for months to come. Prickly Lettuce shoots have been spotted here and there, and Wild Sorrell and Clover continue to cover the lawn in thick green clumps.

 

We're entering into the planting phase for the edible portions of the Garden now, and I have some less-than-edible Herbs and Weeds I am hoping to grow this year that I am waiting to sprout in the seed incubator.

Soon it will be time for me to walk the streets of Stepford in the extended evening hours, and to begin mentally mapping where I see Weeds I desire to harvest, and which houses have domesticated Herbs and other such Plants that I can pilfer for my works. After years of truly detesting Spring and Summer I am starting to actually enjoy the greening season and to appreciate all that it brings.

-S.W.