For some folks, spring cleaning means stowing away the boots and heavy coats of winter and boxing up items from the closet for a run to the thrift shop. They deep-scour kitchens and bathrooms, wash windowpanes and screens, and run a damp rag along the baseboards.
The energetic throw open the garage and separate the accumulated treasures from the junk or break out brushes and stain and refinish the back deck.
Likewise, after a winter of salivating over seed catalogs and dreaming of tomatoes ripening on the vine, gardeners head outside shouldering shovels and rakes to work the earth. Soon, they’re planting beds of flowers and vegetables, mowing and clipping the lawn, and tending to perennials such as hollyhocks, daylilies, and peonies….