Daffodils

Today was really the first time this season that I've been able to go for a walk.  The planets were all aligned: I had the time and the weather wasn't throwing snow or rain at me.

I learned on my brief excursion outside that I had been a little harsh in my previous assessment of American gardening.  Having previously been here only in the height of summer (when it's stifling) or the height of winter (when it's freezing and everything is covered in inches of snow and ice) I had formed the opinion that the people in these parts don't go in for flower gardens.

But the many daffodils, tulips and hyacinths I saw today proved that this isn't entirely true.  Many houses have a few little clutches of spring flowers in their front yards  It's pretty and reassuring but, I have to say, it's still not gardening as I know it.

Now I certainly don't want to tar everyone with the same brush here.  There are people who garden and in some places I am sure it is more common than it is around here.  But you can in other ways that gardening is a minority pastime.  It's mentioned very little on TV, for a start.  There is a series of ads running at the moment from the Home Depot, in which they feel it is necessary to define "perennial" and "annual".

There are quite a few keen vegetable gardeners, even among our neighbours.  But flowers don't really seem to be their thing (an interesting exception in Pennsylvania are the Amish who, I once read, edge their crops with flowers).

That doesn't mean that yards are bare, though.  Next time I'll look at some of the ways Americans decorate outside the house without recourse to horticulture.