Multi

Catalogs often refer to a pattern or print as "multi."   Multicolor? Multicultural? Multipurpose? Multitask? Multiflora?  Whatever.

The Secret Birdbath

Some ideas work out better than others.  In an earlier attempt to control arbor vitae shrubs-that-had-become-trees in my garden two years ago, (see Cuttin' O' the Green, 3-15-12,) I sawed off one large specimen three feet above the ground, intending to finish the job at ground level.  The stumps, however, made a flat platform perfect for a birdbath.  I happened to have a birdbath lacking its pedestal.  Voila!  The proverbial marriage made in heaven. 

Cuttin' O' the Green

Not all cutbacks come from the government, or from a CEO whose job is on the line.  Some come in the garden.  Mine are just in time for St. Patrick's Day.  The arbor vitaes, which I planted in the garden because I didn't know where else to put them, have grown from ten inch seedlings to bushy, good-smelling trees that are too big to keep pruned into neat cones or trapezoids, and yet too nice to cut down entirely.

Big Nest in the Little Woods

Spring begins, usually, in just this sort of gray/black way, all branches and silhouettes, except that this year it isn't doing that at all.  This year it is all sun and tulips greening, so warm that yesterday I finished cleaning up the Hanson Hedge Roses I'd begun cutting back last fall.  I will probably sacrifice their lovely, single June blooms for my efforts, but they were beginning to take over my little vegetable plot and a considerable section of lawn--time for me to regain some control, or, at least, to try. 

Inside In

The word "nest" is everywhere.  From Pottery Barn to Easter decor, nests are in.  Why "nest?"  Why now?  Because tough economic times make us turn inward?  We can't afford to travel, and so we stay at home in our nest?  We are poor because of unemployment and a shaky stock market, and so we try to "feather our nest?"  Maybe.