The Harvest is In!

Black pussywillows (Salix melanostachys)

Day 54
The Daily DuBrule

It was way too hot today. I LOVE warm days in March, but this was crazy. I didn't know how to deal. I was in my car after giving a garden club talk in Farmington and opening the windows didn't cool me down. It's MARCH for God's sake. Anyway, I got through the day and came home to a yard filled with piles of cut pussywillows.

One of my criteria for my new yard was to grow stuff I could harvest and sell at my store. Pussywillows among them. So, I planted lots of plants a few years ago and lo and behold, they LOVE my yard. Thick wet clay. Perfect for pussywillows. Sunday I took out my father's pruning saw and my faithful loppers and cut every bit of harvestable growth off of these plants. Don't think I did it to be spiteful. No. With pussywillows, a hard pruning encourages tons of new growth each year.
 
I was left with a HUGE pile on Sunday at which point I was done. Time for dinner, wine, and a movie. Isn't that what a day off is for?

Fasciated pussywillows are like living sculpture

When I got home this afternoon, the warm, gorgeous day enticed me outside. I tried to be a good doobie and work on my class Tuesday night and the one on Wednesday and the endless email correspondence and the myriad issues at Natureworks. But NO. The day was too warm and beautiful. So, I reverted back to a previous image of myself as "harvester".  I harvested pussywillows for an hour. I cut all the branches into various lengths, sorting them by size and shape. It was so relaxing. A complete hour of forgetting that I am a business woman and a person responsible for 25 people's jobs. At this intense time of year, when spring is busting out all over 2-3 weeks early and I am trying to get a handle on who, what, and where I will be sending my four crews never mind how my retail staff is going to handle the new computer cash register and all of the accompanying trials and tribulations that go with it that I NEVER imagined possible, it felt REALLY GOOD to just cut and sort and bunch pussywillows. 
 
Sometimes, getting back to basics is just what the doctor ordered.