Evening star., 1953-03-29

Dame Nature starts it of by
providing her widest array of
color early in the spring, as sharp
and inescapable contrast to the
drabness of the winter scene. She
hints that a little work now will
yield great results later.
Then the wife steps in, adding
her forceful personality to Ma
ture's gentler mien. She mentions;
she harangues; finally she gets
the garden tools out of the base
ment and hands them to her
husband. With much moaning
and groaning, he sets about his
task.
Three or four months hence,
seated in a lawn chair, he will
look upon the fruits of his labor
and solemnly inform his visitors
that gardening is a >breeze-if a
man just has the will and a way
with flowers.
Now every field is clothed with gross.
and every tree with leaves; now the
woods put forth their blossoms, and the
year assumes its goy ottire.-Virsil
Disgust is a weak word for the
sentiment felt by the gardener as
the last snow Of winter melts, ex-
posing what only few months
before was a smooth, green lawn.
One Of the first orders Of business
is getting the lawn back in shape.
Like the lawn itself, man tends
to hibernate. In many cities and
suburban areas, neighborhood So
cial life ceases with the coming
of winter and starts anew only
about now. The sight Of one man
working on his front lawn tends
to bring other men out. From this
point, the social rebirth Of the
neighborhood takes definite form:
First there is solitary puttering.
Then comes a discussion with the
next-door neighbor over the COM
parative virtues of fertilizing first
and moving afterwards or vice
versa. Then an arbiter is called
in. The topic changes to the kind
Of fertilizer to use-tiae product
Of the factory, like 5-10-5 or 6-12-4
or the product Of mans domesti-
Gated helpers like the COW or horse.
Occasionally q well-rotted-sheep
adherent will get into the argt-
ment; his participation may ads.
vance the discf zion not . Writ
but any little tt ~ helps to revive
the community hirtt
First thing you know winters
supreme egotists are talking co.
operation: Let's chip il on the rent
of an aerator and do a whole
bunch Of lawns for the price Of
oneI let's buy nlaf fsftiliser to-
gethet and save on the rent Of 4 9
spreadef: here, try little Of this
seed, it's guaranteed to choke out
erabgraSS.
Thus it goes. Suddenly almost
as suddenly as spring arrived-the
old neighborhood mood is re-
created. The man next door is
no longer a mysterious comer-and-
goer. It is spring; again he Is your
friend.
God does not send stronse flowers every
ye0T.
When the Spring winds blow Ger the
pleasant places.
The some deOr things lift up the some
fair faces,
The violet is here.
-Adelins Whitney.
The wild riot Of color in a we'll
planned spring garden is dupli-
Gated all over town these days, on
public lands and private. To take
a drive through Washington now
is a sustained surprise. But the
surprise is only in the profusion Of
things there are to see. AS Adeline
Whitney suggests, there is really
nothing new about spring except
spring itself.
In Washington, Of course, the
coming of spring is officially her
aided by the appearance Of the
cherry blossoms. This is a fairly
recent development; the first Jap
anese cherries were not set out
until 1912, when the wife Of Presi-
dent Taft and the wife Of the Jap
anese Ambassador planted the
first two trees.
It would seem that planning
big festival to coincide with the
blooming of cherry trees would be
a risky business. But in the is
times the planners have chanced
it, they have missed having trees
in bloom only once. 1t seems quite
certain they will have some cherry
blossoms to be festive about this
year between April 8 and IL.
Only part of the credit goes to
the planners. The rest belongs to
Nature herself. washington has
two types Of cherry trees-the
single -hlossoming "Yoshino" vari-
ETY. tPrunus yedoensis) and the
double -blossoming "Kwanzan" and
and ''Fukurokuju" (P. serTulGta).
The 'Yoshinos, planted around the
tidal basin, normally bloom about
two weeks earlier than the others,
which dominate the Hams Point
area.