Typically, when I speak of the garden beneath the big oaks, I mean the one closest to the house. The one I can see from my kitchen window. There is a second group of oaks, however, just beside it to the north and out of sight from the kitchen window. It is the garden of my concentration this spring. Left mostly to its own devices, it is home to Turks Caps, Spiderworts, Rock Roses, and the Prickly Chicken Band which is a collection of metal musical-instrument-playing chickens given to me on my 65th birthday, complete with stage.

It is also home, however, to bindweed, coastal bermuda, and hackberries. Those days are now over, at least for the bermuda and the hackberries. I’ve dug up the former and pulled up the latter. Where I can’t pull them up, I’ve cut them to the ground and covered the stump with a tin can. I’ll attend to the bindweed when it starts appearing later this spring. The prickly chickens and their stage, at the moment, are covered in leaves, and I hope to change that today.

My overall goal this year is to do a better job of cultivating the rock roses, trimming back the Turks Caps, and thinning the Spiderworts. Also, I may add a plant or two, say, a Blackfoot Daisy. This summer, when we can trim oaks, I’ll even do some of that. Of course, it would help if I stayed home more, and I think I’ll try that this year, too. Over the last five years I’ve felt as though I was running downhill. Almost out of control. I think I have my bearings now. And staying home feels natural once again. There’s still a world to see, but I need to tend the one right at my feet first. I think it’s called, taking care of business.