Spring Garlic Greens

March is the fastest month of the year here at the LFP garden! Not in terms of harvest, or even physical activity, but the rate of change. To recap: the month started with piles of snow and broken tree limbs everyhwere, as the DC area slowly recovered from the mess of 'snowmaggedon', 'snowcalypse', and whatever over-the-top phrase used to describe the over-the-top winter storms we endured here in early 2010.

And just a few weeks later, the frogs are out hopping, trees are budding rapidly, the grass is green, and farmers already feel behind!

The sound of geese heading North at pre-dawn makes for restless starts to mornings. We farmers and gardeners twist and turn with all the things we still need to get done in the mythical 'off-season', that seeming infinite expanse of winter to do all possible manner of projects, which instead got stuffed with holidays, snow, and sleep.

How is it that three weeks can take us from a blanketed winterland to the humid, dark green rush of flora and fauna energy?

Add to this surge in biological activity a surge in the length of our daytime, thanks to Daylight Savings. Days seem suddenly hours longer, like we've been propelled into a new world where we have an extra half day with which to start seeds, clear old stalks from the garden and repair fence lines.

March brings a frantic close to winter, and a rapid start to spring. It's all evident in the Garlic, which takes the early lead as it shoots through the winter straw mulch.