Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Spring Equinox
Happy Vernal Equinox! That’s a funny word, vernal. The word means ‘fresh’ or ‘new’ and related to Spring. Many gardeners on my Facebook page commented that their favorite season is Spring.
The freshness of it, the hope it brings as we shake off winter. The first time we get our hands in the soil again and smell the Earth!
This year, 2019, has started out with some wild weather all over and that means we’re going to be dealing with flooding…. hang on to to your rubber boots and sump pumps, it could be a tough one.
Equinox means equal night. The Equinox “officially” arrives at 3:58pm central time today and, this year, 2019, the full moon supermoon comes less than 4 hours after later, making this the closest coincidence of the March equinox and full moon since March 20, 2000.
So what should we do today? First I think a happy dance is in order, although in some areas it might be a happy cold swim.
With frost depths reported last week of anywhere from 2 to 4 feet, that ground isn’t thawed yet but you may experience some heaving as the frost starts working it’s way up. In fact, that’s been happening on some gravel roads.
Link to Frost Depths across the Country from NOAA and NWS. Type in your zip code and the map will zoom in to your area.
I know the urge is strong to get out in the yard and do SOMETHING, but working wet soil will pack soil particles tightly together leaving less room for air and water to penetrate. Two very important ingredients to plant production!
Those dirt clods you create become hard as rocks and are nearly impossible to break up. If you compact your soil like that it takes years of adding organic matter to try to recreate the healthy soil your plants love.
