It's Spring

The first sign of Spring was the shining, tiny red face of the little crocus lining the brick perimeter of the southwest herb garden. I selected a red crocus years ago from the seed and bulb catalog. Most of them have survived. Then came the daffodils, then jonquils and a few flags, and finally a bi-color tulip: red and yellow. We formerly had many more flags, but thinning too vigorously and deer eating the tubers left us few.

Our fence has begun — the fence around the garden that is tall enough to stop “Urban Deer” from grazing on our vegetable crop this year, and for years to come. How long have we needed the fence? The School Street garden started the summer of 1992 or ’93. I don’t remember the herd of Urban Deer then.

The grass is green and growing; we hear lawnmowers running. Brice has freed his from winter storage . Our 1.5 acres keeps him mowing and watering all summer. When does he take the mower out to the areas around fruit trees and the garden?

We start worrying about early season warm temperatures. Spring officially arrived on March 20, 2017, but we already had a temperature of 70 degrees! When temperatures are above freezing at night will the apple trees bloom too early — again — and freeze even in May, removing any chance at an apple crop, or maybe not.

Do we have hope of making home made apple sauce? We never buy that, but in prosperous years freeze vast quantities. There’s no need to sweeten home grown apple sauce, made from ripe apples; Mother Nature does that. The same does not go for wild berries; jelly requires much sugar or sugar substitute.

Brice will put sterilized manure in the garden and tilled that in. We won't put in potatoes, onion, or seeds until the middle of May. Hopefully we’ll have enough rain to help moisten the earth, but not too much to limit access.

Do country gardeners battle deer? White Tail, or Mule Deer — one or both? Did early settlers face these problems? Early settlers had rain barrels — wells might also provide drinking and washing water, but not for us on gardens. Not only global warming dries up the skies. What about the late ‘20s and dirty ‘30s?

We have a well for watering the garden and lawn. We need at least a quarter of an inch of precipitation for it to register, and half an inch would be better. Too much rain will wash out seeds. Such a delicate balance exists between good rain and bad. The same delicate balance exists between productive years and non-producing years.

In good years, there is a rush to process and freeze. One year we made so much apple sauce, we switched to apple butter, and still had nearly 5-gallon buckets of apples to give away! We thought our frozen and canned goods would last forever, but alas no. We ran out many years ago.

Now we hope for a similar year. Is that too much to hope for? Will our wishes come true? Is that too selfish to pray for? What would God think?