Peas Are Up

            We came back from vacation to a warm, cloudy sky.  The lawn was long and buds crowded the trees.  The first thing I did was walk over to the garden and see the seedlings.  The peas were up, as were the lettuces.  The collards were only started.  No sign of turnips.  But the peas were up.

            I planted the peas – and the rest – in mid-March, which in Vermont is the same as saying I had Christmas in mid-November.  It’s just not done.  In a normal year, even a good year, I’d be turning the garden and planting the hearty seeds no earlier than now.  Well, it’s not a normal year.

            I weeded, pulling tree shoots and dandelions out of the beds.  I rolled the tractor out of the barn and filled it with gas and mowed.  Ennis and I went for a run, shorts and t-shirts.

            The temperature has dropped – fell like paint off a ladder – and it is now cold and wet.  A steady rain for a day and more now.  The lawn velvet green, beautiful, as close as our yard gets to golf course.  Our lawn, mowed out of primordial hay field and never treated with anything more than dog doo and the occasional back yard pee.

            I spent a rainy Sunday starting seeds inside.  Basil, eggplant, tomatoes (lots of tomatoes), hot peppers.  I negotiated a space in the house for my potted seeds.  I researched the price of screened topsoil.  I sourced some composted manure.

            Although spring came early this year – way early – I still can’t put anything else out because we could – probably will – still have a frost.  I’ll tend the seedlings inside, turn the beds, weed what’s planted and wait for memorial day, when everything else will likely go in.

            We’ll have sugar snap peas in May, though.  I’ll plant a second crop and we’ll have peas through most of the summer.  It is not normal but I could get used to it.

David Rocchio lives, works and writes in Stowe, Vermont. (c) 2012 David Rocchio