The lusty month of May

Jill Severn

This week I found myself humming a tune from a song in the musical "Camelot." These are its opening lines: 

“Tra la! It's May! 
The lusty month of May! 
That lovely month when everyone goes 
Blissfully astray.” 

 But it wasn’t human lust I was thinking of. It was the passionate mating calls of redwing blackbirds in trees, the pairing up of quacking ducks on the ponds, and the birds with nest construction materials in their beaks flying overhead. Soon ducklings, baby bunnies and fawns will be among us. Clearly, May is the peak month of a powerful, instinctive and determined focus on reproduction. 

 Also, the song notes, in May the plant world is at it, too. From the smallest buttercup to the biggest maple tree, nectar and pollen are getting together.  

 “Whence this fragrance wafting through the air? 
What sweet feelings does its scent transmute? 
Whence this perfume floating everywhere?” 

 All this leads to scandalous behavior, a time when “every maiden prays that her lad will be a cad” and when  “Those dreary vows that everyone takes, 
Everyone breaks.”

It’s certainly true that all this sensual stimulation is arousing, but the song does gently acknowledge that allowing the intoxication of May to overtake us may be unwise: 

 “(Try) to make each precious day 
One you'll always rue! 
It's May! It's May! 
The month of "yes you may," 
The time for every frivolous whim, 
Proper or "im." 
It's wild! It's gay! 
A blot in every way. 
The birds and bees with all of their vast 
Amorous past 
Gaze at the human race aghast, The lusty month of May!” 

 Gardening offers the best possible way to sublimate the dangerously amorous temptations of this month. In fact, some gardeners claim that planting and growing — an amorous relationship with the earth — is, in the long run, every bit as satisfying response as the ones you will rue.

Its benefits include fresh vegetables, an almost limitless variety of flowers, fruits, shrubs and trees, the company of birds, bees and butterflies, and far less interpersonal angst. 

 We can also at least try to reframe the arousal we feel when we watch the annual miracle of spring.  

 If you like challenging math problems, for instance, focus on this: How many maple, cottonwood or alder trees would it take to produce a number of leaves greater than the number of miles between the leaves and the sun? This is a question that will require you to spend a lot of time staring at young, fast-growing leaves. This may not lead to an answer, but it will be good for your soul. 

 Another coping strategy is to just wallow in flowering places both big and small. Thurston County is rich in parks, trails, woods, and prairies. They are all either full of flowers or will be soon. Wild camas is about to turn the prairies blue.

Prairie Appreciation Day is Saturday, May 10, but the camas will be blooming for a few more weeks at the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve and in other prairies and pastures.  

 There are other great places to wallow in fragrance and flowers too. A trip up Hood Canal might inspire a visit to Whitney’s Nursery in Brinnon, famous for its beautiful setting and its zillion rhododendron and azalea varieties. It’s a wonderland in May. And a trip to Whitney’s could inspire a hike along a river where wild roses grow, and a stop for ice cream or fresh oysters. 

 There’s another temptation in May: the overwhelming desire to plant too much, too early in the month. This past week was a tad early for planting tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, but I did it anyway. A string of sunny days made the urge irresistible. It was an episode of out-of-control May-induced tomato lust. 

 None of us has perfect self-control, and May is the month when we test our limits. 

Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at  jill@theJOLTnews.com