Nature Speaks: Welcome Spring’s Cleansing Renewal

Ribes sanguineum “King Edward VII”
a cultivar of our true native

Text and Photos by Jennifer Rotermund

Dewdrop, let me cleanse

in your brief

sweet waters...

These dark hands of life.

     - Basho

I love the rain in March. Like a lion or a lamb, I do not care how it arrives. In November, the rain signals the true end of another growing season. In December, it feels harsh. In January, it's just plain cruel. In February, it mocks us relentlessly.

But in March, when our clocks have sprung forward, when soil temperatures are warming, when early flowers finally emerge, rain's life-giving and cleansing qualities are clear. The natural world around us wakes up in a burst of new life, and I can't help but feel a mixture of relief and elation. Some ancient primal space within says, "Ah, good, you've survived another Winter."

Indian Plum flowers

The Great Medicine Wheel turns this month and opens to the Eastern Gate, as we welcome the Spring Equinox - Ostara or Eostre, as it was known to our ancient European ancestors and is considered to be the original source of the word Easter. For a moment in time the Earth’s axis is not tilting toward or away from the Sun; instead, it is directly vertical relative to the Sun, giving us almost equal length of day and night.

If we look at life as a circle, rather than a straight line, March marks a time of renewal, of shaking off Winter's cobwebs and dust bunnies and starting anew. We've made it through the end of the life cycle, and we are reborn again into Spring. The earth that has rested all Winter is now fertile and ready for new growth. And it is, in my opinion, the time when our Northwest native plants really shine. Our local cycles are written into their DNA, and they understand what we're all feeling in March - excitement, anticipation, an expanding sense of happiness from within. They feel it too!

Indian Plum against the sky in March

Indian Plum (Oemlaria cerasiformis), naked and invisible only a month ago, is now covered in white flowers that seem to glow from within. It's newly emerging - and edible - chartreuse-green leaves taste of cucumber and enliven the senses.

Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) opens its jewel-toned pink flowers and welcomes the return migration of the Rufus Hummingbird in what feels like a perfectly coordinated arrangement. The earliest emerging honey bees and bumblebees also appreciate this beautiful floral display.

Oregon Grape (Mahonia sp. - there are several types), are just opening up their clusters of bright sunny-yellow (and also edible) flowers, which additionally delight the local hummingbirds and draw them away from their Wintertime sugar feeders.

Our early Spring Ephemeral Flowers - Trillium and Dodecatheon, to name a few - are just beginning to greet us again to let us know that they too have survived the Winter. (For a more exhaustive list of our native wildflowers with gorgeous photos, I recommend this website.

Oregon Grape flowers

March is the month of awakening and advancing. The pace of life is quickening, is "marching" forward. I find that I'm naturally inspired to take stock of my health, to clear out and clean out the build-up of Winter "clutter" (in all areas of life), and to make sure I spend time outside re-connecting - rejuvenating. Mother Earth knows how to take care of herself with her annual cycle of death and rebirth, and she has so much healing to offer us.

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming and wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat/ sanctuary located in Shoreline). She is a Permaculture Designer, is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and serves as a Docent at the Kruckeberg Garden. She is also an ordained minister with a particular focus on earth-based forms of spirituality.