It's time...

Ahhhh, March has to be the flagship month for GREEN Blessings, to say nothing of my Scotch-IRISH lineage. I had the urge to plant seeds a couple days ago on the fifth so I dug out my garden journal and, lo and behold, LAST year on March 7th I planted seeds!! I guess once the calender flips out of February, my dormant compulsions wake from their long winters nap, rub their little fists on sleepy eyes and walk doggedly toward seeds, earth and trowel. I started by exploring a small round leaf-covered bulge (that looks suspiciously like an ancient elf burial mound) under my beautiful crooked apple tree.

Last fall after winter came knocking with frost I had several flats of tiny peat pots "left over" from summer planting adventures. I kept putting them on my potting table (a wonderful octagon picnic table under aforementioned apple tree) to dry out and every single time it rained. After several days of this, even I was discouraged and unceremoniously dumped the lot into a wet sour mess under the apple tree. Let nature do what she may with them, I was DONE.

So, three days ago when the spring seed bug bit me, on a fluke I decided to check out my peat-pot mound. I scrapped away the leaves as carefully as any CSI agent and discovered tiny peat-pots strewn and piled in heaps as if someone had carelessly, thoughtlessly tossed them out--as indeed they had. I picked up one and sniffed...no sour smell here. Sweet as a newly plowed field. I picked another one...sweet....another. Then I saw them. Squatters come to claim this fertile patch. Homesteading as if they intended to stay for generations. Worms. Not just any worms, EARTH WORMS. Joy effervesced up through me to the point that had my neighbors been listening, it would have confirmed what they have long thought...I'd lost it.

As gardeners know and the rest of the world would if they would just listen, earth worms can work magic in the soil. And, they had. Now, my little peat pots not only smelled good, they were replete with castings...the magical part...the part that helps things GROW. So, I garnered enough for two big flats--I'm anxious to see how much better seeds sprout than in "normal" peat. I'll keep you posted!! Gotta go....seeds calling. :) e