Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A small action that unites past, present and future

This may be the earliest I have ever planted.  After checking the weather forecasts and gardening advice, I decided that today, March 15, the ides of March, was the day to plant, at least this, the Spring crop. 

My timing seems almost perfect.  About a half inch of rain is expected overnight, and it started as the last seeds were covered, followed by several days of sunny, warm and frost free weather.  According to the seed packets, I should see tiny green specks emerge in 7 to 10 days and have fresh-picked spinach and lettuce in my salad bowl in 45 to 55 days.  I may supplement nature by watering it if the weather gets too dry but now is the time to trust that the seeds know what to do from here.

What I did was something I have done most years since I was a child, though perhaps not always this early in the season.  Then it was along a driveway in front of two hedges.  Now it is a backyard garden.  Hopefully this year I will add other crops a little later in the season.  Planting vegetables is something that many people did long before me, and will do after I'm gone, perhaps in the same ways and also in different ways and maybe even different places.  Planting also reminds me of being on the Amtrak train last September around sunset rolling through the Salinas Valley of California with lettuce fields as far as I could see in every direction.

More about my garden in future blogs.....

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