And this is it. At 5:24 p.m. March 20, 2023, we bid a not so fond farewell to Old Man Winter. To say the least, I’m not a big fan of winter, even mild ones like this one. I miss my garden, I miss the daylight, and I like to be able to leave my house without having to dig my way out first. But all that will soon be a distant memory.

Spring, on the other hand, to me, is the best time of year. Sure, March is the time of the “Brown Uglies,” as I call them, when the clean white of freshly fallen snow gives way to patches of brown, in a monochromatic mix of fallen leaves, naked bushes, and plentiful puddles of mud. But that’s okay because the Brown Uglies don’t last long. Even as the snow recedes, spring bulbs are poking through the ground: daffodils and snow drops, followed by tulips and all the spring flowers the pollinators feast upon.

Once spring arrives, I know that any snow will be short lived. Even the deluge of this past week will melt. That was winter snow. Spring snow is something else entirely. Really. Spring snow, as my dad used to say, is nature’s manure for lawns since they green up so nicely afterwards. It’s a funny old saying, but I think there’s some truth in it. A spring snow tends to melt quickly and it provides a nice drink of water for grass and other plants that are just waking up after a long winter’s sleep.

From now on, day by day, the garden will change. First, it wakes up with the lengthening daylight hours. Bits of green appear on the ground – perennials re-emerging and annuals sprouting from seeds waiting in the soil to germinate. Leaf and flower buds on trees and shrubs swell. Even the evergreen plants perk up and add new growth. Then there’s that short window of time when the trees take on a greenish haze as the leaf buds begin to unfurl. Within days, they’ve leafed out and suddenly there’s camouflage, and it’s harder to locate the bird singing somewhere nearby or which tree the squirrels are chattering from.

Oh, and then there are the weeds, which waste no time establishing their presence. But that’s a tale for another day.

And I can’t wait because I’m going to love every minute of it.