Ah, we have arrived. Fourth month fruition means we’re on the fastrack to egg season, including the possibly troubling, potentially genius trend toward adult-only egg hunts (in Norfolk, VA; NOLA; Houston). Then, too, we have extravagant petal performances popping up across the south while the North braces itself for blossom mania among those who’ve been outdoors-deprived. These are the halcyon days of spring we’ll miss when we’re shvitzing in front of the air conditioner, plucking Brood X cicadas out of our cocktails, and swatting a peskier breed of mosquitoes that flew back with the vaxholes.
In the meantime, spring has us coiled (and maybe more venomous, like snakes wound up from all this isolation/hibernation?), and ready for all the gardening action. Make sure you have the right boots to get you through, and if you’ve got short legs, consider stilts to rise above the muck.
April also means the A-horizon has defrosted so it’s the perfect time to get schooled on some home gardening projects (like planting a nectar haven for butterflies). But before you start digging deep (like British bunnies did to unearth prehistoric artifacts) it’s a good idea to test the soil. If that sounds too ambitious, though, you could mooch off of existing data on this interactive national dirt map. And if you’re reeeealllly lazy, just rent someone else’s garden, the easiest way to woo your soil mate. (Unless they’re a virtual turf zaddy — then you should fire up this lawn-mowing simulator and perfect you’re Xbox grass-trimming skills.)
Spring is the season for getting together, after all, and everyone (anyone?) can groove to the the peepers singing for love and the smell of thawed sod, which can dispel all of our wintery woes. So much so that for artists, gardening isn’t enough; they’re inspired to immortalize their musty muse in photographs — from black-and-white lots in Brooklyn to Johannasburg heptachrome — and fashion illustrations, and even in fashion itself. Of course, Christies also knows what’s good.
If life imitates art, we’re also taking cues from floral designers on how to live by nature’s flair, in its lair in Iceland, or at a greenhouse gas station in Oregon — while always aspiring towards this scroll-intensive Jill-and-the-beanstalk toon. We love how “growing things” can be both noun and verb. However you lean into your leaves, we hope you emerge a little greener this week.
April Rules! 🤟 🌿
Aerate
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