What to do in
April?
Get the ice out
of the earth, the mud out of the dirt, the sub-freezing numbers out of the
'early warning' forecast -- as the local cable news refers to its special tease
apparently offered to prepare you for the shock each day's weather. (Do we truly
need to be warned every day that we live in a changeable climate?)
What to do when
the longing for spring begins to be answered?
Get the garden
tools out of the basement, and put the snow shovels in their place, since these
two toolish families share a seasonal berth. 
Remember where
you put the garden gloves, the thick brown-paper leaf bags, the list of
uncompleted preparation-for-winter chores. (No, forget about that.)
Remember the
names, and locations, of the plants you are expecting back this year for their
long-awaited annual visit. (Such as the Japanese primrose, fourth photo down; and Spring Vetch, bottom pic.) This will take some time.
Remember what it
feels like to bend. This way. Or that.
Study up on the
bird calls. Can a bluejay do that? Is it mockingbird time already?
Reacquaint
yourself with sudden alterations of character in the seasonal face. Easter Sunday
was warm, even too warm. Patriots Day was perfectly springlike. A good day for
walking in the woods and discovering that signs of spring are rarer there than
in your own backyard. No leaves on the trees. Few green shoots from the ground.
Skunk cabbage is still the dominant 'seasonal' arrvial. Nobody rakes up the
leaves in the woods. 
Saturday (April
22) on the other hand was raw and rainy at midday. The falling rain was making
clicking sounds on the windows. Then Sunday dawns cloudless-bright, and stays
sunny and cool all day.
What else to do
in April? Put away the winter boots. The ones you wear in the snow when
shoveling the driveway. They ones you wear when you're contemplating a 'winter
hike' and know that your feet will be really, really cold if you don't wear
them.
Take a walk in a
familiar neighborhood you haven't visited since the sun's northern-trending
equinoctial passage in order to enjoy the differences. Other people's
rhododendrons are doing well; what happened to ours?
Confirm, by the
evidence of other landscapes, that this is truly hyacinth (second and third photos down) season. Daffodil time
too (fifth photo down). And bunches of grape hyacinth (top photo), deep blue and abundant, are staking out
corners and lot-lines like an early harvest from the return of the sun. Notice
how late the hour is while the sun's still high.
Notice new deep
brown additions to those landscapes you pass by, where mulch, soil, or soil
amendments are making an early appearance ... Consider this option for several
of your own spaces, while you can still get at them, before welcome, and
unwelcome, guests spread tent-wings over your ground.
Consider that
next week will already be too late to 'get ahead' of the weeds. I checked this
afternoon. The weeds are already leading.
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