The Avid Gardener

 

You'll need the long-handled, heavy-duty

secateurs for those tall, thick rose canes

that mysteriously lost their foliage last fall

and they're not where you last left them but

first things first, the lighter pruners will do

for the water spouts on the crabapple trees

and while you're at it, snap off a few of the

spreading hosta leaves leaning over those

little carpet roses, then have a go at that old

climbing rose. Your rubber gardening gloves 

are good but still get pierced by the thorns, too bad. 

Pull up all the spent, shrivelled forget-me-nots 

along with the maple seedlings but leave the 

newly-sprouting morning glory seedlings for 

when the clematis vines have finished blooming

the exuberant morning glories will capture the 

trellises. Now spoon out those collected coffee 

grounds at the base of the blue and pink hydrangeas 

but leave the Annabelle to its own devices since

nothing stops it from spreading and blooming. 

Last, certainly not least for the day unwind the 

garden hose and haul it over to each garden bed and 

border and don't overlook all those garden urns

and planters teeming with annuals you planted a

month ago in your frantic plan to leave not one

unoccupied space where soil begs to lavish nurturing 

as a proxy to your gardening hallucinations.