For today’s diary entry I am going to defer to an excellent blog post I read today by Deborah Silver because it’s better than anything I could come up with.

I have subscribed to Deborah’s blog, Dirt Simple, for many years now and it is one that I always take the time to read when it appears in my inbox.  Deborah is a garden designer in Detroit and also owns a store called Detroit Garden Works.  I love her blog because her writing is completely free from snark and because her belief in the power of gardening to make the world a better place is evident in every post.

Her most recent installment is about how March — in Michigan, at least — is the cruelest month for gardeners.  This surprised me.  How could March be worse than January?  With her descriptions of landscapes laid waste by months of severe weather, Deborah makes a convincing case.  Only in March is the extent of the damage revealed: dead grass, ravaged evergreens, and “stony silence.”  In my corner of the country, March is unreliable but far from bleak.  Hellebores, daffodils, crocus are in full glory.  There is mud and debris, but there are also days where the temperature tops 70 degrees.  We’ve got it easy here.

So my heroes today are the northern gardeners and their incredible resilience and optimism through dark and punishing winters.  What an inspiration to read such a message of hope today.  Thanks Deborah!