Embracing Hustle and Blooms

A Season of Growth and Good Things

While I appreciate the light in the evening, every year, it feels as if the state of busyness is cranked up to 11 when the time changes at the beginning of March. This year is no exception, with my schedule seemingly broken down into 15-minute increments. Yet, with that said, a lot of good things are happening. 

Singing the Praises of Penstemons!

Last week, the Spring 2025 Horticulture issue arrived with my penstemons article. I couldn’t wait to see this piece in print, and it did not disappoint. They did a beautiful job, as always! The hardy and beautiful penstemons are some of my favorite plants, and I’m happy to share them with readers. 

The book launch at Whispering Petals last Saturday was a smashing success. I have to offer major credit to my friend, Carly, who has the phenomenal food truck Okii Eats, where she creates unforgettable Native + Korean fusion cuisine. When people know that Okii Eats will be somewhere, they are there in droves! 

Carly and her fantastic family offered Korean Friend chicken bites, gimbap served with cucumber or pineapple kimchi, and Little Rezzies, fried bread dusted with sugar, her special Okii berry syrup, and whipped cream. She also created an exceptional lemonade, and I made raspberry syrup from last year’s berries from the garden for a very delicious drink. Everybody loved it!

I signed books for nearly an hour and a half straight, and it was such a treat to meet new people and catch up with longtime friends. I loved how people sat around and talked for over an hour on many occasions. It was just one of those feel-good events, and I’m considering doing something similar in the summer. 

February was rough for us weather-wise, and I’ve been itching to make it to the other side of the hills to visit friends. The previous weekend was a no-go because of the crappy roads (that’s the technical term), but even though Essex, a town on the west side of Marias Pass, received nearly a foot of snow on Saturday, it melted off the road by Sunday afternoon. (I am eternally grateful for the Montana Department of Transportation cameras set up in key areas throughout the state. It’s good to see what things really look like instead of guessing.) 

So I head to Kalispell on Sunday afternoon, picking up chicken from the Back Room, one of my favorite restaurants in the Flathead, to stay with my friend LeAna. I was grateful for only wet roads, but it was the typical dark, damp conditions in this area. Although it’s a stunningly beautiful valley in the summer, at this time of the year, actually from about November through March, seeing the sun is a rarity.

While there, I walked along the slough and enjoyed the myriad of birds, including three blue herons, several red-tailed hawks, and a half-dozen tundra swans. At one point, I heard sandhill cranes but could not see them. 

I also trimmed up a couple of the apple trees. A company managed to trim the tops, but they do not necessarily know how to prune fruit trees. It wasn’t perfect, but I opened some branches to encourage higher-quality fruit production. 

Yesterday, March 26, was my 35th anniversary of moving to Montana. Way back when I decided I wanted to continue my pursuit of a wildlife biology degree in Montana, I decided to establish residency first. I saw a tiny ad in The Missoulian for the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex, and after a brief application process, I was offered the job over the phone. Ten days later, I overloaded my Chevy S-10 (with a 400-pound weight set in the bottom of my massive pile of stuff) and drove out. 

My stepdad, Greg, came with me, and for about 25 years, he said he was still scarred. I lost my overnight bag with my favorite clothes somewhere around Chicago. We backtracked but never found it. The next day, driving through a blizzard in Wyoming in the middle of the night was a surreal experience. Although Greg wanted to stop in Sheridan, WY, I convinced him to continue. We made it to Billings, which was good because the highway was closed behind us the following morning. 

Arriving at the Inn, I was welcomed by Larry and Lynda Vielleux, a couple of the best people in the world. I started my six-month stint as a server and then as a cook, which was great fun. It was an adventure-packed time during which I learned a lot, particularly realizing that I was truly home in Montana. 

Despite the cold and windy conditions we’ve experienced for weeks, spring gave us a reprieve. Yesterday, we enjoyed a sunny, 70-degree day, the first of that temperature since October. After running into town in the morning, I spent all afternoon working in the gardens. 

My first task was transplanting tomatoes and basil. I wasn’t going to do this, but I’m now up to six flats of plants. There will be more. Last night, all but the Hungarian medium-hot wax peppers stayed in the greenhouse because the temperature remained in the mid-40s, but this weekend, they’ll all be back in the house with the forecasted cold and snow. 

The other task was cutting back the fall-bearing raspberries, old sunflower stalks, and perennials that I neglected last fall—pretty much all of them. I’m totally fine with leaving the standing plants for the beneficial insects. 

Weeding began on one of the front gardens, and I hope to catch up on all of them by this afternoon. I also need to work on the herb spiral garden and decide where to build more rock beds or set up large containers. It feels good to be in the garden in March, and I hope to keep up the momentum. 

Spring is off in a sprint, but I am happy to have it here!