As a Minnesotan, I can’t help but feel that each spring is a hard-earned season. After being snowbound in a sometimes dreary, sometimes sparkling winter, the first sight of bright green buds overrunning the trees wakes me out of my own hibernation.
This spring, I can’t imagine the transition will feel quite as striking, but I’m sure the return of greenery will still speak to something within me. The courtyard gardens outside my apartment will slowly unfurl once again before filling out in a sudden rush once the weather permits. I’m especially looking forward to the potential return of a few perennials, which Gregor Farm & Greenhouse graciously let me take home after the plants’ star appearances on Twin Cities Live.
Growing up, I wasn’t much of a gardener, but my mom is quite adept when it comes to planting and cultivating beds and pots. Every April was heralded by the smell of cocoa bean mulch and fertilizer. My brother and I were deputized weed wranglers for a weekend or two, but it was my mom who kept the garden going into the late summer.
Reading Renée Stewart-Hester’s article about local master gardeners brought me back to my roots, as it were. It also helped me see something I hadn’t noticed. Although I don’t take to any flower beds armed with a shovel and a kneeling pad, I’ve replicated my mom’s green thumb through the riot of houseplants I’ve accumulated.
Monsteras and philodendrons crowd my windows. Pothos and spider plants overrun my shelves. And for every surviving plant I have (Let’s be honest, there were casualties.), the seed of know-how for its care was planted by my mom. I might be more of a gardener than I thought. And who knows? Maybe, I’ll take to my apartment building’s flower beds this spring.
Happy gardening,
-Madeline Kopiecki
