For the last decade or so, my Bealtaine celebrations have been punctuated by an explosion of green. Every year, I dance the Maypole, all the while taking note of the leaves finally reaching out in praise of sun and rain. This year, I did not dance the Maypole until the weekend after, but I spent the 1st welcoming signs of spring at my new home. This was our first Bealtaine here. My daughter helped me greet the flowers we planted in the autumn. We spent so much of March and April looking at their bed with longing; it was very satisfying to see them emerge and eventually blossom into a colorful display! The bees certainly approved of our efforts.
When working with my garden and the plants who grow around my home, my mind and heart swing to Airmed, a goddess fraternally connected to our plant allies. We made a space for her. Bee helped put offerings of gratitude in the little bowls we put out on her stone.
My husband helped me move this half barrel into a corner of our yard. This followed us from our last two apartments. I’ve been placing offerings into it for years, and I even buried my ferrets in it. Renting, I had no other choice! So the little ones follow me, joining our spirit allies. I usually plant foxglove or woodland tobacco in it.
This is a new tradition for us – it’s something we couldn’t easily do at our apartment – make a May bush! Ours is slightly different from traditional Irish May bushes, mostly that it’s not Hawthorn and isn’t something we paraded around. However, we tied some cloth to the branches of this established bush – mostly ribbons Bee helped me choose. We danced around it, thanked the local spirits, and prayed for good luck upon our home, especially in regards to the productivity of the land we live upon. It was a show of love and gratitude for the patch of land we call our home. The bush has since burst into life. We have decided to treat the ribbons as we do those of our grove’s Maypole – which is based on the tradition of my first grove, Muin Mound – we will remove the ribbons around Samhain and put them into the fire, thus returning the fertility to the land.
Each High Day, I think back to how I spent it as a renter. I looked forward to owning my own home and having space to establish deeper relationships with the land. I did what I could before, with container gardens, a failed attempt at worm bins, and delving deep into the apartment complex’s wooded land to make peace there… but now I can finally live out more of my dreams. We planted seeds in the earth. We planted trees and blueberry bushes in the earth. We have a compost pile. Finally, finally, I can start interacting with the yard I was so excited to work with when we moved in at the end of August last year.
Author M. A. Phillips 
Good for you, and thanks for the link–that’s a good site. We moved here to a boonie-ish area last year, and planted things, especially seeds I had saved for a couple of years, and the chipmunks, squirrels, deer, and everyone ate them. Fortunately they also went to the bathroom on the land, so some of it got planted that way! Oh well–there is a ton of green here that they don’t eat, or don’t eat all of, including oak trees, so we just feed them and hope for the best for all!