I suppose it is never a normal spring. But it does seem like we have gotten more rain than usual this spring. Not that there is anything wrong with that as Seinfeld would say. I am sure we will be hearing dire predictions of drought soon enough, and all the rain we have had lately will be forgotten.

It is yellow season. The amount of pollen in the air seems normal enough. Today I had to turn on my windshield wipers just to knock the pollen off my windshield after the car had been sitting outside for about four hours. I am afraid to use the spray water option with the wipers. The pollen becomes one yellow smear that takes forever to get off the windshield. It is quicker to just dust it off.

My wisteria is as happy as a clam and blooming away. The bumble bees are having a field day with its blooms. It is the only two weeks of the warm seasons that I don’t curse my wisteria.

I’ve been out in the yard and checking out my plants. I didn’t have much luck with my daffodils for the second year in a row. Where I have flower gardens, I have trees. My poor bulbs do not get enough sun.

My azaleas are blooming. I have found sprouts where my peonies are just beginning to peep through the dirt. I keep searching for Gerbera daisies. Two are peeping up from the ground, but I am hoping more survived the winter. My hydrangeas are leafing out.

One is an Annabelle and has tons of magnificent white blooms. The other three have never grown any taller than I think they were when I purchased them. I guess I need to fertilize them. Also I don’t think the last several years of summer drought have done them any favors. They do like lots of water.

I put several geranium plants into a brown paper bag and hung the bag up in the basement. I need to look and see if they survived. I hope I have done that before you read this.

I planted violas in the pots in the turnaround in my driveway. I usually plant pansies, but those violas have made such a pretty show this spring that I think I am going with violas from now on. My mother always said that pansies made little cat faces with their petals. Well this violas have made a riot of little cat faces in yellows and purples and whites.

I know they won’t last too much longer because they can’t take the Georgia heat, but I surely do not want to pull them up yet.

I usually plant impatiens to replace the pansies and by the middle of the summer, something eats around half of them.

I have come lately to gardening. I’m not that knowledgeable. I do purchase plants and hope. I try to fertilize and water. My only requirement for buying plants is that they either have to have a flower or be a tree. With some trees, you get the best of both.

The only exception to this rule is the ferns on the side porch. I would prefer hanging baskets with something that blooms. But my husband insists on ferns. Tradition. Every year some stupid bird nests in one of those ferns. I bet they would leave a nice hanging basket full of trailing geraniums alone. But, of course, the geraniums won’t be happy on the porch. Too much shade.

I have learned the hard way that I sometimes purchase plants that are not suitable to the area in which I intent to plant them.

The final push of spring will be when all of the worm-like things that are on the oak trees lining my driveway begin to drift down and create tumble weeds.

Trying to blow those things off the driveway is a thankless task. It looks like you have blown together a mass as big as a small child, but it quickly dissolves into nothing. And you are left with a face full of pollen.

Once those tumble weeds of oak pollen are gone, it is safe to wash the porches because yellow season is over.

Paula Travis is a retired teacher from the Newton County School System. She can be reached at ptravis@covnews.com.