I stepped out of the store and walked across the parking lot toward my car. When I entered the store an hour earlier, it had been slightly cool, but now the air was considerably warmer. Everyone I saw was walking slowly and smiling. Earlier, everyone in the parking lot had been holding their collars shut and rushing to get out of the chill wind.

Some days in April look beautiful. The sun shines, and piles of snow along the roads and in fields begin to melt. Great gusts of spring wind sweep over these mounds of leftover winter, and the blasting air becomes sharp like a knife. On those days, when an unsuspecting person steps out of a warm house, the freshly weaponized wind slices into their warm, tender neck skin.

Occasionally a sunny April day can be so warm, and has so little wind, that people Think that summer has arrived to stay. A true, native Wisconsinite cannot be fooled that easily. We joke about having first spring, second winter, second spring, third winter, and so on. I just think to myself that Wisconsin has five seasons; spring, summer, fall, winter and the season I call yucky-muck.

Winter doesn’t like to leave on a schedule, politely, without a fuss or with good will. Yucky-muck season lasts eight to twelve weeks. It is a time of tug-of-war between winter and spring as the two fight over who reigns supreme. During this time, often within one week’s time, it is possible to experience a huge winter blizzard followed by days of balmy breezes and the hatching of mosquitoes. At this time of year, if the ground isn’t white with snow, the yards are filled with brown and gooey muddy ruts and dirty rivulets of water draining away. 

After spending a winter indoors, I’m desperate to see what my flowerbeds are doing. Each year during the yucky-muck season, I make frequent flowerbed inspections. At first, I’m overjoyed to see a few crocus blossoms. At this point I can’t even tell if the hydrangea bushes survived the winter because their buds are so small. When the daffodils first come up from the cold earth, I can’t tell them from the mystery lilies which come up at the same time. As their buds rise into view, I pray there won’t be a cold snap to stop them from blooming.

I see work that needs to be done, such as weeding, removing protective leaf coverings and trimming. I resent my inability to get those jobs done. If I pull away dead leaves too soon, a late cold snap might harm the plant. Pruning too soon could have me cut back too much or too little.  This year I also must also keep in mind that I am still under movement precautions since having hip surgery a month ago. I worry about being able to get down to work in my flowerbeds this year.

My flowerbed inspections always end with a visit to my hoop building garden. It gets very hot inside it on sunny days despite cold temperatures and wind, but once the sun goes down, the soil doesn’t retain the heat. There are a few plants, like blue berry and rose bushes that live in the garden year-round. Rabbits love the inside of the hoop building because it’s easy for them to find a way in. The plastic covering gives shelter from snow, rain and lashing wind.

Despite putting small fences around the berry and rose bushes, rabbits manage to dig under to get at tender branches. I have mixed feelings about how the rabbits generously provide me with abundant compact fertilizer pellets for the soil. I grow garlic each year. Some of the cloves escape harvesting and they are the first things to grow in the spring. Last week I was surprised to discover that all the tender, new garlic shoots have been nibbled down by hungry rabbits.

At first, I chuckled and observed to my daughter, who was making that day’s flowerbed inspection with me, “I’ll bet the rabbits in my yard all have bad breath from eating garlic greens.” Then I remembered that I’d recently read that rabbits usually stay away from eating garlic because it was very bad for their digestion. Thinking about how rabbits ate my entire pea and sunflower crop last year I callously commented, “I hope they have a fatal case of halitosis.”

I’m happy that the yucky-muck season is over with all its sudden weather fluctuations. Unfortunately spring, summer and fall happen to be wildlife feeding time and all the local critters think I manage a free buffet!