Saint Patrick's Day

I look to Saint Patrick's Day as the starting point - the day which I can plant peas and arugula in the garden. But I am waiting this year. The garden is still too wet from the melted snow. The soil isn't ready, even if I am.
I come home from work in the daylight and breath in the air - you can smell the promise of Spring. But then the evening grows cold and the air smells of winter - frost and ice.
I yearn for the Spring, so inside I have planted peppers and eggplants for the summer months, more than I need, and I plan where I will place them in the garden, dreaming of those warm days when I am covered in dirt, but smiling, at the end of the day.
There are things to do to get ready for the garden, even if the garden is not quite ready for me! I have
the potatoes chitting - getting ready to grow eyes, then leaves, to prepare for planting.

They make me smile when I see them. They look like walruses sunning themselves to me. These are fingerling potatoes. I decided not to do the larger potatoes this year. I have Rose Finn apple potatoes to the left, purple peruvian to the right, and some that I picked up in the produce aisle of Stop and Shop for dinner Sunday in the middle.
Although I cannot plant anything yet, things that are perennial or that were planted in the fall are coming to life. The garlic is greening up and showing itself through the straw that covered it all winter.

(This is just grocery store garlic that I planted last fall)











The Chives have popped up looking strong and green.

The strawberries are starting to look stronger. The straw I covered them with seems to have blown off, but the plants survived.

And the Helleborus is in bud, getting ready to be the first flowers of Spring. I am so happy I was gifted with these plants (thank you Diane), it is such a treat to see these flowers from my kitchen window when nothing else is in bloom.

Spring is coming.  The peas may have to wait a week or two, but nevertheless, Spring will be here soon!

“That is one good thing about this world...there are always sure to be more springs.” 

                                                                                                                        -L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea