To my great delight, the spring peepers arrived two weeks early this year, just days after the croaking bullfrogs let their presence be heard in our pond. Although we can’t actually see them, falling asleep at night with their magical mating music streaming through the open window is one of my favourite manifestations of spring. 

In the waking hours, still recovering from a nasty cold, I’ve been making a little time each day to spend outdoors enjoying the effects of the warmer weather on our almost six acres of land. It is in this precious interval every year, between the arrival of the frogs and that of the dreaded black flies, that we begin without molestation the process of preparing the property for whatever kind of summer  lies ahead. 

Although it is not yet warm enough to uncover the tender green shoots that are still protected by their leafy mulch, already we’ve seen foxgloves and daylilies, oriental poppies, lady’s mantle, iris, columbine and catmint peering upward toward the sun. For the moment we can ignore the tedious hours of weeding that will also come with this territory as we turn to the many other tasks that really need to be tackled right away. 

Trees, grapevines and roses have to be pruned, and the branches stripped by raging winter winds from the ancient maples in front of the house need to be collected and removed. Although in the past we have burned this detritus in a series of carefully monitored bonfires, we’ve finally begun to think more creatively and to develop a plan much more resourceful in its conservation of materials, as well as more attractive and ecologically sound. I regret that it has taken us so long.

Late last summer, while we were trimming the alders and small birches  that encroach upon our driveway, we made a pair of decisions that are beginning to take shape as I write. The first was to plant a vegetable garden this spring and the second was to surround it with a Dutch fence. It is in the construction of such a fence that our surplus wood will find a  useful and permanent home.

Between the parallel posts that Sasha has already set in a thirty foot line, we’ve begun to layer the various prunings, cuttings and fallen branches that will eventually break down to form a solid wall. As soon as the ground is thawed, we will create the remaining three sides. Then, when we clear and weed the flower beds and remove last year’s dead stalks and woody growths, this material too will be stuffed into the interstices. 

With time, the posts themselves will weather and the entire production will begin a gradual decay that will leave us with a natural barrier to shield our garden from predation. It might also create a habitat for the small birds and other unseen creatures that no doubt live here as well. If all goes swimmingly, according to a friend who has done this before, “in a year’s time it’ll be so solid that you couldn’t drive a truck through it if you tried.” We’ll see.

In the meanwhile, it’s pretty gratifying to see the results of each day’s labour gradually transform the land into an increasingly useful space. Although the garden itself is still in the future, we have finally made a start.