I KNOW IT IS NOT MAY 4 YET, but rummaging here this winter in my closets I found this notebook, an early example of my prose. I couldn’t wait one more moment to show you. (And the days ARE getting longer, aren’t they?) Happy first day of spring from No Spring Chicken.
THE LECTURE that he’s been giving for a number of years is not-so-subtly called “Kill Your Lawn.” Ecological horticulturist Dan Jaffe Wilder knows that starting over and creating an entire native habitat instead of a lawn isn’t for everyone. But Dan just wants to grab our attention and get us to start to make some changes at least in the way we care for the turfgrass we do want in our landscapes. And maybe give up a little square footage of it to some other kind of more diverse planting, too, like the wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana, inset). Alternative, more eco-focused styles of lawn care, along with some lawn alternatives is what he and I talked about on the podcast. Dan is Director of Applied Ecology at Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Wales, Massachusetts, and its 8,000-acre sanctuary. He’s also co-author with Mark Richardson of the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.”
(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)
Well, speaking from direct personal experience with my chickens in spring, everything is cheering up! My hen, Eartha Chick, went on an adventure the other day. Apparently the grass truly was greener on the other side — the dog yard side! No worries, all came out ok in the end, but it provided a good story for my blog.
Here on the human side of spring, I started the first batch of vegetable seeds (the ones for “oh, I think May 1 is safe for putting tomatoes in the ground, even though ‘they’ say May 15”) and will set up the cold frame this weekend for a bit of season-extending experimenting. Lots of daffs and tulips pushing up now — I know it’s too soon to pull back the mulch, but I’m desperate to see them all!!!
And I see that A Way to Garden has ramped up to the growing season — what a joy to have more frequent articles and lots of photos!
I love it! I will chant it like a mantra, “Days are longer, days are longer…”
Happy vernal equinox, yourself! And thanks for all the gardening advice. I’ve found several tips here that will help me, this year, even though I don’t have a big plot with room for trees and things.
do you still have your baseball cards too?
They are indeed. Daylight is increasing by about 3 minutes on each day previous here near Bergerac at roughly 45 degrees north.
A crucial fact heh?
Rob
I love this
Thanks, Andre. In my early days, I was quite the snappy writer. :)
I love your blog and website. So different and beautiful from my Zone 10.
Welcome, Claudia. Zone 10? Did you say Zone 10? I’ll be right over…send me the MapQuest coordinates. It just refuses to really be spring here (let alone Zone 10), and I am desperate. Happy to have you as a voyeur; please come back soon.
“Days are longer” is fun prose for a gardening blog. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the May 5, 1961 prose you can read behind your May 4 journal entry: “We saw the man go up in space.” Nasa’s web site confirms your journal entry(http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_171.html) with a suborbital flight of Mercury Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. as the first American in space.
Welcome, Peggy, and don’t WE have sharp eyes, missy?! Yes, the next entry in my notebook marks the Mercury launch. I have never shown that page to anyone except my friend Andre Jordan, who has a thing for astronauts. I sent Andre a jpg months back, when I found the notebook. It’s a really previous possession now, though for all these years (like 20 or 30) I didn’t even know I had it. See you soon again, I hope.