My front yard, a low-water, anti-grass garden, is bursting. Also bursting is this high-energy, unable to run gal. I cleaned up all of the leaves I scattererd last fall and pruned all the dead back. Since I took the master gardening class with Missoula County extension officer Helen Atthowe two years ago, I have listened to her brilliance and not made everything squeaky clean in the fall. Leaving all the foliage and blanketing the earth with leaves prevents weed seed germination and increases soil microbial activity. It mimics nature and nature does pretty well on its own.

Helen’s advice is true for all things: tidy, sterile environments aren’t interesting or healthy. A well seasoned, lightly tilled, slightly messy life is what I want. However, in reading Martha Stewart’s Homemaking Handbook, a gift from my mama, I am realizing that with my home it is also time to clean up all of the leaves I have scattered last fall and prune the dead back. Especially behind the fridge and under the bed.

I have spring fever. According to my Webster’s New World College Dictionary, spring fever is “the laziness or restlessness that many people feel during the first warm, sunny days of spring.” yup.

today’s insight: Don’t bite off more than you can chew or you’ll choke but always take a bite.
photos: day lilies in front yard; my garden gate made out of two old window frames; Alice’s toes