A gentle breeze, a nearly perfect temperature. I’ve been sitting on my patio long enough that the birds pay no attention to me and go about their business. The sun is casting long shadows across the lawn, but we still have close to an hour of daylight left. It is as perfect an evening as we’ve had so far this season. This is the place to be.

I can look across the garden and see that there is much I could tend to. Daisies to dead-head, some weeds to pull, nearby a stack of mulch that should be put around the trees. But you shouldn’t spend all your time doing. At some point, you should relax and enjoy the gardens you’ve worked so hard to create for yourself and others.

Yes, while I am sitting, some weeds are growing and will be a foot high instead of six inches tall when I finally pull them. And the perennial sweet peas are taking advantage of my lack of attention by spreading themselves further through the garden than I intend them to go. But they are just beginning to bloom with bright pink flowers, so I’ll let them go for now.

The seasons wait for no one, as has been written time and time again. Already, the spring season is giving way to summer, and what I had planned to do “this spring” may have to wait until next spring. I didn’t have a good pea crop at all. Did I plant too late? Did I not provide enough protection from the rabbits? Or was it that the variety I planted just wasn’t compatible with the spring weather we had? I will make do with whatever measly harvest I end up with and try again next spring. ‘Tis too late to try a different variety.

I wanted to dig up a new planting bed this spring, but it rained when I had the time to do it. Is there still time to do it now, or should I wait until fall? I think at this point I will wait until fall, as now a whole new set of gardening tasks present themselves to me as we move too rapidly into summer. I have shrubs to trim back and more mulch to spread. The lawn cries out to be cut twice a week. And, soon hopefully, I will have some vegetables to pick.

A lovely evening in the garden. I’m just going to enjoy being in the garden and not working in it for awhile, at least for this evening.