it has been chillygrey- raining and raining for four straight days now. ponds in the pasture hollows, and puddles in my garden. no high-heels for me, but i did pull off a badly-tied tennis shoe in the driveway muddy spot this morning.
springtime in georgia has a steady recognizable melody; all turns slowly and surely towards a warming earth and early blooming trees and bulbs. however, two weeks ago we had a freak 4″ of snow for two days followed by a week of warming weather that peaked at 83 degrees! these flat notes keep it interesting, but anytime can be a surprise…. some years are mild enough to grow green peas through the winter. other times, springtime is so brief; it is hot in the blink of an eye, with your new seedlings drooping in the sun.
garden planning ebbs and flows, always waiting out weather variations . once in awhile, a late frost knocks out early attempts, but for the most part, in the south, potatoes get planted around valentines day, and by st. patrick’s day, all sits on GO.
having sunny mildish days throughout the winter gives us a head start towards our garden dreaming and planning. plus, there are times to plow in green stuff, or add a load of compost, putting in perennials, even getting some beds dug, ready and waiting for early spring. just before the rains, i had tilled my planned new asparagus bed, a 35 foot row….wide and deep. also put several organic additives into the soil and heavily wood ash down the the row. have always found that asparagus flourish if you ash them each winter. i already have 40 plants in full, heavy middle-aged production( i ate the first brave stalks last night). there is a good market for fresh organic asparagus. for what folks buy in the grocery store at such high prices, there is no comparison. once hooked, you become a believer. i have sold, bartered and given away early asparagus for a long time. i thought it might be a good investment in the future, so i went ahead and acted “as if”. i ordered twenty more plants, even though i couldn’t afford it at all. now i have received the roots, and their new home is already waiting, ready for my latest leap-of- faith… and for cool sunny weather to dry out the land.
it is in dreaming we begin, but each action, however small, keeps you on the path toward making it REAL. if i had not had the vision, i would not have ordered the plants, that fast led me to the bedmaking, and now into another ongoing project. making plans is great, but until you begin to walk the walk, its all just another potential in a fertile mind. i am full of half-baked ideas and burnt back-burners, and i can sit in consideration (procrastination) for a very long time, so i do
know this drill a bit too well. but, today… i am just proud of my new asparagus patch.
sounds like mud is the order of still another day, but i am ready AND waiting!
