March greetings fellow gardeners and nature enthusiasts,

Before March grows any older, allow me to reminisce (or perhaps one might call it a good vent) about the previous month. For me it was rather torturous- so windy, way cold, and with that last blast of snow and ice a couple of weeks ago, plain treacherous underfoot. I shan’t soon forget chiseling and shoveling in overdrive!

But with that day or so of late February warmth, I set out to clean the chicken coop. I slop through thawing muck in the pen and decide that using my trusty wheelbarrow is totally fruitless. I’m obliged to scoop litter with a dustpan, dump it in a bushel basket, then carry it back through the mud to empty it into the compost pile. Yes, one bucket at a time, and that’s with flustered chickens running amuck. Pun intended! Yet, who am I to complain as I think about folks working operations on a much larger scale, be it with animals or with plants? What are they dealing with? Farmers are unbelievably hard workers, committed to bringing you the food on your table each and every day.

Before I digress further- just one more snow comment. Unwelcome as it is by this point, this type of snow cover is actually very beneficial. A slow melt allows moisture to soak into the ground rather than run off. Patience is a virtue, (hard won I might add), but a replenished water table is what we all depend on.

Picture 2: Injured rosemary…showing signs of life?

Now that bare spots are emerging, I venture out the 3rd day of March to see how my rather sad looking rhododendrons are faring. Through many years of experience, I’ve found February can be the most detrimental to them. So what can happen? It only takes a day or two that is windy, very cold, sunny and snow-covered. The reflected light from snow can then scald the leaves and kill buds. Well, we surely had that! I find, though, as I cut open a bud, that it is firm and green inside. Good news. The foliage is peaked; I’ll be sure to fertilize twice in the spring- once in early April and again mid June.

Not such good news for rosemary. Picture #1 is a plant that made it through last winter in fine fashion. It’s facing south, snuggled against a big boulder. That’s cozy, right? This year it’s toast! Picture #2 is one I planted against our south-facing foundation. It, too, suffered, but I can see signs of life low down. Time will tell.

Snowdrops popped through showing a white bud on the first day of meteorological spring. How good is that? A few brave 1” spears of daffodils have just poked through in my outdoor planter. My 40-year-old crabapple tree is completely pruned, and I didn’t even fall off my stepladder perched ever so precariously upon crusty snow.

It’s now March 5th, and I’m still resisting the urge to start seeds. With the exception of a few varieties such as lettuce and peas, I mostly grow warm-weather crops. I resist the urge to rush. I want a sturdy, stout plant when I set it out in the garden. I’ll succumb to that urge to get my hands dirty soon enough!

I’ll be scouring my perennial beds for spots to tuck in more native plants and to cull non-natives. Please remember that all our pollinators have evolved with the natives that provide the most sustaining nutrition. Take a second look at “weeds”. After all a weed is simply a plant out of place. There are plenty of flowers with pretty faces in my own garden. They are not that beneficial, so I am changing. Less lawn and more native berry-producing shrubs and super-attracting native perennials. Think about it.

That’s it for now.

Judy

March 2025 Musings

Nashua Farmers’ Exchange