Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
SPRING FLING
Welcoming the blooming season
Monday, May 1st is “May Day.” For some, there are thoughts of celebrations that include maypoles, flowers, the welcoming of spring, dances, singing, and cake. Residents of Kendal— Crosslands Communities, a continuing care retirement community located in Kennett Square, share their thoughts about what this time of year means to them.
In Spring, the outdoors is reborn. It is the season of Easter, and the gardens, fields, and woods dress to match with vivid green leaves, daffodils, and tulips. The days are warmer and longer, giving us more time to weed and plant. Briefly, our cottage flower garden will be in perfect order — all of last year’s dead stems removed and each sprouting perennial — set in a bed of fresh mulch — looking like a catalog illustration. For me, working outside on a balmy day is wonderful therapy. By May, all of our feathered friends will be back — most visibly, the Red-winged Black Birds nesting around Crosslands Pond and the Purple Martins chattering about their apartment houses along the walk to the center. Less visible is Mother Goose sitting on her eggs among the cattails. Bees will be busy among our violets and woodland poppies. Much later, we can look forward to Monarch Butterflies on our butterfly weeds and Gold Finches picking seeds from our coneflowers. By May 10th, all danger of frost will have passed and I will head to the garden centers for snapdragon and zinnia plants. I have a plot in the community garden where I grow cutting flowers for our center. As I set out my plants,
I can look forward to July when I will be harvesting zinnias three times a week. There is joy in getting my hands in the soil in May.
Sara Hill
I recently moved from New York State and I am happy to continue my hobby of vegetable gardening. This time of the year, early vegetables such as lettuce, kale, swiss chard are just beginning to peek out of the ground. My beets and carrots are still cultivating underground and I wait with anticipation until I see the beautiful seedlings. Although the calendar just turned to May, I begin my gardening process in January. As the snow and winter winds are fiercely blowing, I am planning my garden, drawing it on paper, and then this time of the year, happily I implement the plan. I finally make the dream and hope a reality. Gardening this time of year is a renewal process for me as well. I am planting the seeds both metaphorically and literally (in my life and in my garden). Gardening has connections for me to my Eastern European ancestors. There’s a peace in my soul that I can find even in this messy, chaotic world in which we live today. The garden and this time of year is a sanctuary and I am with my fellow gardeners too.
Loan Anh-Small
This time of year, we witness the new season cycle to begin — a time of development, resurrection, a new life to plant. And some of the most important festivals of the year take place in the spring time in order to honor the earth, plants, animals and all other beings. I enjoy working with floral arrangements. The flower’s image represents the most intrinsic and refined qualities of the plant materials which are able to bring beauty, usefulness, elegance, and fragrance to offer to our senses. Especially a flower’s fragrance can carry their own present existence to all areas no matter what the direction of the wind or the direction of the current. This is to imply the subtle means of human life. I was told as a child if a person has good inner qualities of the mind and heart (i.e. inner fragrance) these inner fragrant qualities will spread even against the contemporary trend of the time in order to bring life’s goodness to others. That is why I like to do the Ikebana, an Asian style of floral arrangements.
Owen Owens
This time of year, it’s fun to walk along various paths and trails outdoors and see the fruits of my labor. For instance, to see the sprouting up of Virginia Blue Bell plantings in the woodlands (native plants that care for the environment) is such a joy and a sense of accomplishment. Many plants “compete” in a natural environment and there is peace knowing we can assist the forest regenerate itself with species that have been extinct for more than 50 years. The caterpillar is key. They live on selective plants (ones that nourish them and give life and are not poisonous). They are then sustenance for other species such as native birds. I, and my fellow conservancy neighbors, strive to preserve and enhance our natural surroundings with particular attention to meadows and woodlands and this time of year provides beautiful weather to assist. Just yesterday, looking out my window at the cherry tree in bloom against the spectacular blue sky was inspiring.