Snowdrops and Updates.

The very first flower bulb poked up and out on Wednesday of last week. The crocus and winter aconite are not too far behind, they were all open yesterday although slightly unimpressive for photos. 

All the garlic is poking up now through it's mulch. On thursday I planted a bed of arugula, radishes and baby mesclun mix lettuce. I threw some bok choy and kale seeds in a few places where the soil was dry, workable and warm. The remainder of the garden is still quite wet and unworkable, now covered in a layer of snow we received last night that should melt today. My garden would likely be drier if it wasn't as heavy with clay as it is. Someday I hope to have the clay fully remedied by continuing to add manure, compost and seaweed every year. It gets better every year even though I never underestimate just how much it will settle over the winter months. I cover any bare garden soil with either eel grass or by planting it with oats to help minimize any erosion and to help protect the soil from pounding rains that cause run off and compaction.  It's a really good idea to stay out of your garden when it's too wet, the rule of thumb being that if it sticks to your boots, it's too wet. 

You can actually do more harm than good tromping around in the wet garden as your boots can compact and generally disturb the soil. 

The snow has mostly melted off our asparagus plants and strawberries. I'll be keeping my eyes on them for any action in the following months. Everything has germinated in the cold frames and overwintered cold frame plants have started producing again. We've eaten a few kale leaves and cannot wait to be overrun with fresh greens.  After letting a lot of greens, lettuces and radishes go to seed last year, I was elated to see some had seeded themselves in the garden. Looks mostly like radishes and lettuce so far. I will certainly be allowing them to grow, nothing like bonus veggies. The overwintered seed waited through all the cold weather for the time Mother Nature signaled them to sprout.  

I'll never forget Marjorie Willison's (The East Coast Gardener) wisdom about planting the first crops. "When the first bulbs; snow crocus, winter aconite and snowdrops, bloom the soil has warmed enough to plant the first crops."