Spring in the Air, But Not on the Ground
A lighter note before diving into a much heavier topic (hint to Kathy - it's the essay you requested. Sort of. You'll find out soon.).
Spring in Minnesota is an unusual thing. Here we are in early April, temps in the very comfortable lower 70's. The sun is shining. People are out doing outdoorsy things again. And everything is pretty much still grey and brown as it was in February, only without any snow.
Greenage takes a long time to pop up around here. It can vary with the weather of course, but I never get my hopes that it will arrive in any serious measure until May. And then it all comes in about a week and a half and BAM! It's summer.
I wonder what spring is like somewhere less wintery in the winter. Is spring a long, lazy happy season there? Is it the kind of weather we call "summer" up here?
In any case, I started my heirloom tomatoes yesterday. I held back this year. Only 50 Jiffy pellets, with 3 seeds apiece. And more shockingly, only 14 varieties! Three of which are (gasp) hybrids instead of heirlooms.
Didn't get around to starting the eggplant or herbs yet. And I really need to pick up a book and figure out when non-tomato plants ought to go outside, or I'm going to blow it again. I tend to treat every plant in my garden as if it's needs are the same as a tomato plant, and some don't respond well to that treatment.
But first I need to prepare the garden. And due to my laziness and general sullenness last fall, I left myself a royal mess. Blech. But I generally enjoy the work once I'm into it. It's lacking the gumption to get started that delays me.
But spring is here for sure. For what that's worth in Minnesota anyway.
Spring in Minnesota is an unusual thing. Here we are in early April, temps in the very comfortable lower 70's. The sun is shining. People are out doing outdoorsy things again. And everything is pretty much still grey and brown as it was in February, only without any snow.
Greenage takes a long time to pop up around here. It can vary with the weather of course, but I never get my hopes that it will arrive in any serious measure until May. And then it all comes in about a week and a half and BAM! It's summer.
I wonder what spring is like somewhere less wintery in the winter. Is spring a long, lazy happy season there? Is it the kind of weather we call "summer" up here?
In any case, I started my heirloom tomatoes yesterday. I held back this year. Only 50 Jiffy pellets, with 3 seeds apiece. And more shockingly, only 14 varieties! Three of which are (gasp) hybrids instead of heirlooms.
Didn't get around to starting the eggplant or herbs yet. And I really need to pick up a book and figure out when non-tomato plants ought to go outside, or I'm going to blow it again. I tend to treat every plant in my garden as if it's needs are the same as a tomato plant, and some don't respond well to that treatment.
But first I need to prepare the garden. And due to my laziness and general sullenness last fall, I left myself a royal mess. Blech. But I generally enjoy the work once I'm into it. It's lacking the gumption to get started that delays me.
But spring is here for sure. For what that's worth in Minnesota anyway.
Posted by Doug on
Monday April 4, 2005 at 5:39pm
