An indoor seed-starting tray can make the gardening year feel suddenly physical. One week the packets are still paper promises. The next, thin green stems are lifting paired little leaves above the mix. They are so small that it is easy to treat them as decoration. In fact, they are a working system. The first leaves on many seedlings do…
Every spring has two calendars. One hangs on the wall and moves forward one square at a time. The other opens unevenly in the garden: snowdrops first, then maple bloom, then forsythia, then the first lilac flowers, then the moment when peas stop sulking and beans begin to make sense. Gardeners get into trouble when they trust only the first…
Read more about When plants tell time: phenology for gardeners
