Not Saint Patrick’s day green, but spring green.
Is March a winter month or a harbinger of spring? We would like to think it is the latter. Many a March has been warm and sunny and I have worked away in the garden only to be faced with a bitterly cold April. This has not been the case the last couple of years however. I suspect the reason Saint Patrick’s Day is so popular in this country, outside of the heavily Irish centers of population is that it also comes at the beginning of spring. Green is the color of spring.
Figgy thinks that spring is definitely coming. He broke dormancy last week and I hauled up from the garage to the sun porch on Thursday, just before Friday’s snowstorm, the biggest one of the season so far. That fuzzy white background is brought to you by blowing snow as seen through a wall of windows. March always seems so full of surprises. Wednesday it hit 70 degrees. Friday topped out in the 20’s. That seems more like a Texas-sized shift in the weather rather than New York weather. Still I think I am ahead. Last year, Figgy thought spring was coming in February.
Today is Saint Patrick’s Day. My typical March 17 celebration centers on pea-planting. But not this year. Truth be told, the vegetable garden still sat under a layer of ice before the snow came, so I hadn’t planned on putting the peas in this weekend anyway. March seems a little cold for peas, but the frosts are usually minor and short lived at this time, and the peas can handle a bit of cold. I can plant later, aiming for any time from mid March to early April, but with peas there is always the guessing game we play with Mother Nature, and I tend to opt for an early start. The peas can take the cold but not the heat. Will May be hot or cold? Here in the Hudson Valley of New York State it can swing either way. I suspect many are more cautious in their pea planting as the farmer’s markets are filled with peas in early June, if the weather cooperates. Although there are many plants for which there is no advantage in an early start, this has not been my luck with peas. I usually have peas before they are available at the farm stands, and this is, to my mind, a plus. I get a double pea season. There is nothing quite as sweet as a pea picked right off the vine. And a pea picked in early to mid May is definitely a harbinger of spring. So it seems spring may be a little later this year.