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| March Goes Back and Fourth March 20, 2008 09:16:13 The month of March will give you fits sometimes. I have planted all my early stuff in March during years past. It would take a week of sunshine to get to where I could work some ground and plant something. We seems to get one day a week of sun and six days of clouds and rain so far this year. Older folks like to say you should have your potatoes planted by St. Patrick's Day but I spent a very rainy St. Patrick's Day playing Celtic music with friends at none other than the little community of St. Patrick, Missouri. A garden too wet to work.  The sun feels really nice and warm when it shines and it is now when you realize how much higher the sun is in the sky during the day than it was just a month ago. It is that warm sun that needs to shine to dry the ground at least to the point where it can be worked. These crocus are sheltered in some rocks used as steps to the front porch door so they warmed up enough to spring up and bloom. 
The key to the ground drying out is whether or not it goes below freezing at night. If the ground freezes up during the night on the surface it is much slower to dry because the initial energy from the sun each day is used in just thawing it back out. Of course it depends on how much rain you have had and we have had quite a lot over the last 6 weeks. Which has been a turn around from the preceding months. There were times this winter when the fields although thawed were also dry enough to drive across which is unusual for winter time. But, there seems to be nothing really usual about the weather any more. 
Above is my garlic starting to come through the straw. Amazing that it can actually grow in this weather with the ground so cold. Warming the soil is another job of the sun. It may dry out but it needs to be warm enough for seeds to germinate. I have more than once planted stuff early only to have the seed lay in the soil ungerminated because it is too cold. You can almost guess the soil temperature by the weeds that are coming up. One old farmer used to say you should not plant beans until the cockleburrs are coming up. And he is about right because the cockleburr is a plant that is late to come up when the soil is nice and warm. Well I'm ready. It certainly will be nice to have some home grown stuff to eat because I sure am tired of imported lettuce and radishes. Although I buy organically grown produce at the store it just is not the same. Comment on this article | |