Plant ideas for garden plots with spring get-together

Garden memory: A row of herbs in clay pots is lined up on an old bench outside my back door. That’s where the sun is best. The year’s crop is especially prolific and aromatic. I often come out and ruffle a hand through the raucous green mass of foliage, producing a heady perfume of dill, rosemary and sage.

For even the most reluctant of gardeners, this time of year and its promise of green leafy things seems irresistible. My friend Pat, not a dyed-inthe-wool gardener, is plotting a patch of lettuce. How will she keep the rabbits from getting at it? I had to ask.

She says she has that all figured out. Her lettuce garden will be in its own window box, elevated on a stone ledge, out of reach of bunnies in of a sensible salad.

“Gardening is not my thing, but I love fresh leaf lettuce,” she says. “And I discovered by putting it in my flower boxes, I kept rabbits away, and I can cut daily all summer — only need to replant once. Plus, I think it looks great, and it never has to be weeded. Win, win.”

These garden days are still in the dream state, but the dreaming is a wonderful thing. And why do it alone? Gather like-minded garden dreamers for an herb-infused Garden Dreams Gathering. Make it an afternoon for friends to meet up, armed with seed catalogs, magazines with dazzling displays of herb and wildflower patches, and big, green dreams. And recipes. Can’t forget that.

The menu is a make-