NEW YORK TIMES
By ANNE RAVER
Published: March 11, 2009
THIS is how I know it’s time to plant peas: the winter jasmine is blooming on the south side of our farmhouse in Maryland; the bluebirds are building their nests again in the hollows of the locust trees; and the ground, so frozen in February, has thawed. Last week, my boyfriend, Rock, and I ventured into the vegetable garden, where the raised beds, full of compost and earthworms, are the first to warm up in March. I picked up a handful of soil and pressed it together, as if making a snowball, while Rock surveyed the rusted tomato cages and dead plants we should have pulled up last fall, saying, “Look at this mess.”
