A Tidy Bed of Hope

Hope has come to Weedy Gulch as it does every spring. It rolled in last week on a tsunami of expectation, and it felt good.

I refer to my garden. In years past, it has delivered joy and heartache – and always within a single growing season.

But in spring, there is only hope. It dims last year’s anguish. It bars all thought of the troubles to come.

So, high on hope, I visited a Lowe’s garden center. Hope had conspired with the weather to bring 70-ish temperatures and a cloudless sky to Louisiana even before 9 a.m.

I left 20 minutes later with bags of cow manure and garden soil – $69.88 worth of hope.

Back home, I pulled early weeds and yanked out roots from last season’s pepper and tomato plants. I emptied the bags and raked their promise of the bounties to come.

The result: a tidy bed of hope.

I’ll plant in a week, still scorning the coming causes of despair – aphids, hornworms, leaf-footed bugs, hungry opossums, excessive heat, my incompetence.

For it is spring. When hope wins.