A promise of spring
The big question on many
gardeners' minds this year is --- will spring eventually catch up, or
will the cold winter push even our frost-free date further into the
future? Both wild plants and those in the garden are running
behind schedule this year, with most of our earliest spring wildflowers
just starting to unfurl. I finally saw a dandelion blooming in the
yard this weekend, and the grass and clover are beginning to grow, but
it will be another couple of weeks before we can put our chickens into
their pastures.
So
far, it's a bit hard to tell whether the dormancy of our perennials is
due to the slow spring or to cold temperatures nipping flower
buds. The blueberries are starting to wake up, but peach flower
buds still look small and shrunken. On the other hand, apple
flower buds are just barely beginning to swell, suggesting that the
apple crop, at least, may come through for us this year.
I thought I'd close with a quote from my weather guru.
"Keep the faith," he wrote. "Spring will come...the April 15 to
May 15 period being CERTAIN to result in a glorious rebirth of the
mountain landscape...as dictated by Mother Nature's Time Clock (even
though everything is running BEHIND the time schedule right now...it will catch up during this dependable period)."
So there, you have it --- a promise of spring! No matter when it comes, spring will get here eventually.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.