Now hold on a minute….

All you need is a warm day in late February early March and people are already out working on their gardens and raised beds. I am a big believer in doing what you can when you can, but when I see people ready to plant out this early, I cringe a little.

As somebody who spend a lot of time in and observing nature, I know we've had several mild winters and early springs. I see hair bittercress should not flower until April, popping now, but I also know the wisdom in not planting out until Mother's Day when we are sure the last vestiges of frost are behind us.

Over the last few years, I've also been a big proponent for No Mow May. By allowing your grass to grow for another month, gives all of our beneficial insects & pollinators a chance to raise the next generation, before we destroy their homes.

I also know folks are weeding out so many edible and medicinal plants now, in an attempt to cultivate that pristine lawn or gorgeous, flower bed, but there are advantages to waiting.

For instance on March 30th I'm hosting a fundraising tour for Norris Square called "Know Before You Hoe" which will inform you of the edible and medicinal values of plants you're probably weeding out. And as an amazing part of this fundraiser, the inimitable, Iris Brown will be providing a traditional Puerto Rican lunch all included for your generous donation ( sliding scale ) For tickets click here

Now is also the time to get involved in your community, and across the city there many ways to get involved from volunteering to help community gardens at, Urban Creators/Life Do Grow, the People’s Kitchen, Bartram's Gardens and Iglesias Gardens all of which are doing early garden prep work, including building, raised beds, moving, compost, and mulching. All of those jobs will give you the direct contact with nature that sunny days seem to call for, while occupying you enough to keep you from being overly ambitious and planting things so early that a March cold snap could result in plant fatalities.

And now is an absolutely great time to experience, maybe, for the last time, the beauty that is a FDR Park. Although the first wave of destruction has been completed, they have not yet started the next wave of tree removal and the leveling of the soil mound that will comprise the foundation of the planned multi-purpose fields, to be covered in artificial turf.

And I don't think there's a better way to experience the park then with the upcoming Tree Ceremony that will be performed by the Pennsylvania Lenape.

So during this month of March, which comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb, hosts the auspicious Women's History Month, and International Women's Day, which, as it happens, is my birthday, I hope you will take a minute to pause, to breathe deeply, to appreciate what we have, regardless of how temporal that is, and as the plants do, gather your energy slowly before blooming in glorious splendor once spring is truly here.

Following my own advice, I'm headed out of Dodge to celebrate my milestone birthday in the sun, in order to be able to get a little R&R before forging and teaching season begins in earnest.

Cheers!!