The harbingers of spring have started to return. In the past 3 days I have seen 2 killdeer, a soaring black vulture (I have seen this bird every day around 11am flying over the farm) and hundreds of robins taking advantage of the plowed garden beds (our soils are jammed packed with many kinds of earthworms). I have yet to see any redwinged blackbirds yet but they like to wait until it is a bit warmer.
The maple tree in back of the house is just beginning to get swollen leaf buds. I was at a friend's house just north of Oxford yesterday and the trees at her house looked like they would be leafing out in 10 days or so-the leaf buds were BIG and she said the ephemeral green haze that appears in late winter was already there. But the green haze has not yet come up this far north and probably won't for another couple of weeks.
But spring will be here soon enough and than we start to get really busy with planting-both seeds started indoors and seedlings that will need to be transplanted into garden beds. We have started a few things already, heirloom lettuces, a variety of onions and leeks and soon I will get on the early tomatoes. I was going to do them the 1st of the month but it was a new moon, a bad time for planting things that grow above ground so I am now waiting for the 1st quarter and warmer weather (which luckily may well coincide if the local weather people are at all on the ball. Of course they have been covering their asses a lot lately with new forecasts every 12 hours or less)
No comments:
Post a Comment