Last month, one of our own (I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten who) posted his enjoyment of the spring season, and I bragged about having already moved my houseplants outside. I was, as ever, premature in my rejoicing of the warm weather. It seems that our wonderful warm spell was immediately followed by another 2-3 weeks of chill, with the nights falling down towards the freezing mark (the plants survived).

But now it’s April, and we have indeed reached the warm days. The days when you can actually see the pollen drifting yellow from the pines that surround my apartment. The days when you could wash your car every five minutes, and still have it covered in yellow dust as the pollen continues to drift. The days when you could spend your every waking hour browsing the aisles at your favorite plant nursery.

It’s time to re-seed the beds, fertilize the soil, plant the annuals, and plan the garden enhancements. All normal parts of being a home-owner.

How frustrating, then, to have the home-owner’s instincts, but no home to use them on. As an apartment dweller, even in a townhome, one’s options are limited. The red Georgia clay is not mine to dig up, not mine to fill with azaleas, hydrangeas and hostas. It belongs to the apartment owners, and so I content myself with containers.

Green plastic pots, of various sizes, hold an assortment of plant life outside my front door. And four half-barrels, and a couple wash-tubs. Last year, I went hog-wild, and my neighbor started calling my yard the “botanical garden annex.” It’s not, of course. It was just a reaction to having spent most of February in Chicago, and being grateful to be back where it was warm. My neighbor, who loves to wander the property and salvage treasures from the dumpsters, was forever bringing me plants or empty pots that he had found.

The dumpster plants seem to thrive in my care, somehow. Thanksgiving 2004, we pulled a 6-foot palm tree out of the dumpster, dragging it from its pot as we pulled. I re-potted it and brought it inside, and it’s still going strong. This year, my neighbor found an abandoned schefflera – it’s only problem was that it was ridiculously rootbound (still in its original nursery pot, I think). I pruned the deadwood from it, and it’s doing well.

And whenever my neighbor brought me an empty pot last year, I had an overwhelming urge to find a plant for it.

Not this year.

This year, my plans are more for maintenance, less for expansion. Some plants will need to be re-potted into larger homes, and all the pots need soil enrichment. So I visited the big-box store the other day, and stocked up on gravel, sand and compost, with a little extra potting soil, just in case I run across a plant I can’t live without.

I’m trying to figure out what to do with my Norfolk Pine… he’s in the largest plastic pot I’ve run across, and I honestly think his next re-potting will be into a half-barrel, but I don’t want to do that until I’m in a house of my own. Once he moves into the barrel, he’ll never be able to come inside for the winter again.

I also have a small tree that the squirrels planted for me. It grew last year in the windowbox with my petunias. I transplanted it last fall into a pot of its own, and it has leaves this spring, so I’ll see how it weathers the summer, and maybe move it into a larger pot this fall. Last year’s butterfly bush (buddleia davidii) survived the winter, and the miniature roses did, as well. I planted 2 new butterfly bushes this year, of a different variety than the other, that blooms earlier (buddleia alternifola) – I saw it at Biltmore last year and fell in love with it.

I’m waiting to plant my petunias – last fall’s pansies are still going strong, so I don’t need to replace them yet. I always have petunias, because Mom always had petunias along the side of our house, so when I see the petunias, I think of Mom, and remember childhood.

But the petunias are the only other flowers I’m planting this year. Well, petunias and some Sweet Pea that will vine all over the backs of the metal chairs someone threw away. The seats are missing, but they’re just the right size to hold a flowerpot, and it makes for an interesting look.

I’m also creating a bird-bath this year, with my neighbor’s help. We found a discarded satellite dish, which is exactly the right shape for a bird bath, so he’s going to fix it up for me.

Looking forward to the butterflies, and the hummingbirds, and the color when everything’s in bloom. Until then, I’m enjoying the green, and the new growth, and the preparation.