The onset of Daylight Savings Time. The impending vernal equinox (nine days away!). I said a year ago that spring never comes early. Let me restate that: Spring had never come early following the six winters I had spent in Lethbridge. I may have been jumping to a hasty conclusion. This weekend we have spent time working in the back yard, enjoying sun and mid-teen temperatures. Leaves are emerging from honeysuckle stems and bloody dock roots. A few of the ladybugs exposed when I cleared away the old Swiss chard plants were ambulatory. Given the odd winter that has been, it's possible to believe that the weather will not turn severely cold again until after the growing season. But it's impossible to be sure. Mild weather is expected to continue for the rest of Winter, which may be long enough to convince some plants that it is now safe to grow. There could be some sad stories of frost-bitten ambitions in the near future; it could all be just fine. No point fretting about it.
While Barry toiled in the raised bed area he is creating, I filled some empty containers with earth. Now we have 11 more containers for plants that like their roots warm, and we have a smaller dirt pile near compost as well as less clutter in the greenhouse. Win-win-win. Barry had the harder task of dismantling two garden beds surrounded by cinder blocks (now colonized by yarrow) and leveling the ground to put in a new raised be (and then three more). I think it will be a huge improvement. The long beds looked good last year, but on closer inspection, too much of that lush growth was peripheral weeds.
We harvested a few parsnips and sunchokes today - first homegrown food of 2012. The arugula in the kitchen doesn't count because we haven't been eating it. It's more like a chia pet.
