Late Spring

Lisa talks about her passion - her hillside permaculture project.

Late spring starts with life burgeoning all around us. Everything in the outside world is greening and growing. I think of this time as the green pulse of May. Dylan Thomas expressed so well the sense of these days in his famous words, “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” The riot of new life takes us over and away we go with this new energy.

As growth erupts all over the farm, out come the hoes and the clippers and the lawn mower. We get to reap rewards after the long winter wait: salads of spinach and lettuces and arugula, the irises and tulips and alliums bursting into colour. Now purple and white share the stage with green.

The greens have held the limelight for some time—it’s surprising there are no other names for green in the English language like there are for snow in the Inuit world. The lime green of Euphorbia wulfenii stands out against the grey green of rosemary, the yellow green of berberis and the dark green of other shrubs. It has been a marvellous show.

The first beets and carrots arrive in early June, along with flowering perennials such as nepeta and flowering herbs. Lady’s mantle overflows the pathways and all the various peonies announce the lush arrival of June. We’re also surrounded also by the fragrances of this time of year: the sharp, sweet smell of snowball viburnum and all the aromas of the climbing and rambling roses on the big stone wall. 

I walk through the garden every day just to experience all the beauty—appreciating the gifts of the lengthening light and the landscape as it moves toward summer solstice.