Witchhazel 'Diane'
Signs of Spring before the Equinox:
- snowdrops and daffodils,
- dead skunks in the middle of the road,
- Lonicera fragrantissima,
- bright blue blue birds,
- quince since Christmas,
- wrens cheeping in the morning,
- witchhazel in bloom,
- and bright shiny red peony eyes of ‘Pink Charm’, brought to the hollow from Mrs. Hereford’s garden at Carr’s Hill so many years ago.
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Peony 'Pink Charm'
No matter the early spring, I’m waiting til the soil tests around 50 F before sowing peas, spinach and cool greens like lettuces, cilantro and arugula. Down here in this low spot by the creek we stay cool and my handy dandy soil thermometer is still showing low 40’s.
Soil thermometer
I’ll plant peas in the upper bed that warms up soonest and drys out quickest to cut down on the chance of rot, the chief bane of peas. I will sow with the waxing moon as the old adages advise, about a month from now.
Consulting Johnny’s Selected Seeds, www.Johnnyseeds.com, I find peas and spinach (as well as beets) prefer a soil Ph as high as 7.5. Wood ash, of which we have an abundance, is used to sweeten acid soil much like lime, so I’ve been adding it to the vegetable garden as well as to boxwoods, lilacs and peonies.
The vegetable garden will be my salvation this year, a nice tidy plot where I can make my Paradise inside the post and wire fence. I’m going for the no-till, heavily mulched and cover-cropped style as described in Virginia Gardener’s February issue www.vagardener.com. The idea is to keep all parts of the soil either mulched, in green manure plantings, or vegetables – nothing bare.
This mild, benevolent winter gives none of us any excuse not to get a jump on spring!