All of a sudden, this past week, flowers are popping up all over the place: from the ground, on trees, and all over previously skeletal shrubs. We didn’t see our neighborhood at this time last year; the major tree flowering fell in between our first visit to the house and when we moved in the following month. My parents also missed this by a couple of weeks on their recent visit; because the winter was a regular (i.e. cold) one, the early blooming of the past few years didn’t happen. Our dogwood hasn’t bloomed yet, either, and I’m looking forward to that.

It’s really quite pretty, and it’s easy to see why the Bradford pear trees were such a popular choice for the town now that they’re in full bloom. Because of the cold winter the azaleas haven’t bloomed yet, but the forsythia and cherry trees are also in bloom this week. Before moving out here, I didn’t have any allergies: now I have them for these three weeks each spring, when the pollen count goes through the roof. I maintain that they’re not technically allergies, but just a completely predictable and healthy reaction to having my internal head membranes become coated in plant dust.

All these flowers serve as a reminder that spring is really and truly here, and the time to take advantage of weak root structures and soft earth is now. ‘Ivy, begone!’ is the theme of this season’s yard improvement project plans. In practical terms, we’re trying to fill our two trash cans with yard debris (old wood, pulled up weeds, pulled down ivy) every pickup (twice per week) from now until all we’re left with is the lovely mundanity of side beds that are weed-free, soil-treated, and mulch-covered.

With a little luck, that will be sometime before next winter. If that’s all we accomplish this summer and don’t plant a single new thing in our yard, I will still be ecstatic.