it’s that time again

anyone who was with me last year this time knows that i went went on a full-blown fern bender. i spent about two weeks doing nothing but moving ferns about my yard. remember, it was early COVID last year this time, and we were all being especially vigilant about quarantining. so, with my usual routines paused, i focussed my nervous (pandemic) energy on the ferns in my yard which i had hitherto mostly left untended. it turns out, i have at least one of every kind of fern native to minnesota. that was a delight to discover. now those ferns i moved are all about shin high. in a few more weeks i will be able to assess the success of last year’s efforts. planting perennials is a long game. the plants get stronger and fuller with every passing year. this year will only tell me whether my ferns survived transplanting. they won’t come into their full glory for a few years. until then, they will have to compete with the weeds. but one day, their root will go deep, and their fronds will go high, and the weeds will find no sun to nourish them under the canopy of fern leaves. and my job as gardener will be finally complete.

young ostrich (fiddlehead) ferns