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Early Spring Chores

Spring in Cornish Flat

Spring in Cornish Flat comes in fits and starts. Warm sunny days are followed by cold rain – or even by snow. Spring is technically here, and I have started a few seedlings indoors (onions, artichokes, peppers, some early greens) but I will wait until April to plant most things indoors. No sense in babying tomatoes for 12 weeks – 8 is enough.

Each year the snowplows dump lots of sand and road dirt onto my lawn. I try to shovel the dirty snow back onto the road before it all melts. I do this because it is easier to shovel it now than rake it later, once it has all settled into the grass. And dormant grass in the early spring is susceptible to being damaged by my rake. It≠s important to wait until the grass is no longer dormant and the soil has dried before raking the lawn.

I haven≠t started pruning fruit trees yet, though the time is ripe. I wait until most of the snow is gone before pruning mainly because it’s hard to set up my ladder and carry off the branches in deep snow. Since I prune professionally, I can’t afford to wait too long – I need to finish all pruning before the buds open up in late April or early May. There is still knee-deep snow around my trees, so I haven’t gotten started anywhere.

I took my bucket of kitchen vegetable scraps down to the compost pile recently and found that the snow was deeper than I≠d thought – I fell through the compacted crust up to my knees. That happened despite some rain and warm days in the preceding days. Spring technically arrived on March 20, but winter in my neighborhood is being a bit feisty.

composting

Many gardeners give up on composting during the winter months. Not me. I keep a 5-gallon pail under the kitchen sink and I don≠t find that it gets odiferous even though I only empty it once every week or two in the winter. Still, my compost pile is far away, and I’ve been wearing snow shoes to get down there. My compost pile is enclosed by 4 wood pallets, the kind that freight is delivered on, and the winter’s accumulation – mixed with layers of ice and snow – is nearing the top.

During the cold months all the microorganisms that would normally breakdown the vegetable matter are resting. No matter. When warm days arrive, the critters will get to work. But unless the compost pile has the proper mixture of ingredients, moisture and temperatures it is a very slow process – a couple of years until it’s ready.

The bacteria and fungi that break down compost need both carbon-and nitrogen-based materials. Good sources of carbon are leaves, hay and most brown matter. Things with lots of nitrogen are green leaves or grass clippings, manure, vegetable scraps and coffee grounds. A little nitrogen added to a compost pile will help to get quite a bit of carbon-based materials to break down.

There are many kinds of microorganisms in a working compost pile. Aerobic bacteria are the workhorses of the process; they require oxygen to live and reproduce. Anaerobic bacteria are the “bad boys”. If your compost smells like sulfur or rotten food, you have bacteria that thrive in an environment that has little or no oxygen. Some gardeners turn their compost piles to aerate them, or use a harpoon-like “compost hook” to create pathways for air. I rarely do either, though I did buy one of the harpoons to see if it made a difference. I didn’t see that it was a worthy investment.

Later this spring, I’ll take a garden fork and poke around in my compost pile. If it’s too wet, I’ll add dry hay or leaves to help dry it out and let in more air. Or I may even turn the pile, moving unprocessed matter to one side and adding some aged manure to speed up the process. At the bottom of the pile there should be some good old compost to use in the garden.

early bulbs

This is also a good time to see where you need to plant spring bulbs next fall. Take some pictures or place tags to show where the snow melts off first, and where you need some early bulbs. I like having early bulbs to herald spring: the earliest white snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), rich blue and purple scilla (Scilla siberica) and glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa luciliae).

Crocus

Crocus are good, too, and some can be quite early – though nothing is as early as snowdrops. Actually, winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) flowers can be almost as early as snowdrops. They’re low yellow flowers, though they don’t do very well for me here in Cornish Flat. Instead of multiplying like my snowdrops, they seem to disappear one-by-one over the years. I need to replant some this fall.

In any case, don’t be discouraged by late spring snows or slushy weather. The sun has real strength now, and it won’t be long before we are in our gardens.