Member-only story
FRENCH LIFE
March Winds & April Showers . . .& Sometimes the Opposite
Whatever. I’m ready for the May flowers
However neglectful I’ve been about the garden at other times of year, my enthusiasm returns in spring. But April has been unusually petulant this year — tearful all last week, breezy and cool today. A few sunny smiles, then the tears start again. I hope Mother Nature realises how inconvenient this is and gets April to shape up a bit.
The wind is particularly annoying; I’d prefer it to finish at the end of March, the way it’s supposed to do. My allergies are bad enough without le vent sending pollen from the chestnut tree down the road and up into my nostrils. I find nothing romantic about chestnuts in blossom — and I’ve spent April in Paris. I sneezed the whole time.
Yesterday, we had lunch with my friend Jodie, an enthusiastic and more disciplined gardener than I am. Almost anyone is. After lunch, we stopped at a fantastic nursery where my partner bought another citrus tree — a Tahiti lime that he’s been looking for, and I bought dozens of plants — petunias, Spanish lavender and pretty much anything else that caught my…
