Great Book

A couple weeks ago I found a great book at our library by Sandra Perrin called Organic Gardening in Cold Climates.  It has everything a vegetable gardener could want in a book.  It's been around since 1991 and I can't believe I never discovered it before.  I checked online and a revised edition came out in 2002 with a second printing in 2007 but it now seems to be out of print - at least I can't find any new ones available on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  I managed to get a copy from a used book seller through Amazon and it arrived in the mail just this morning.  I can't understand why such a wonderful book would be out of print . . . and it seems a shame that Sandra isn't seeing any benefits from all the used books being sold.  I can see it becoming my gardening bible. 

Snow, snow and more snow

And the snow keeps tumbling down.  The groundhog definitely didn't see his shadow here yesterday, but it doesn't really matter since spring won't arrive until May - April at the earliest - no matter what the groundhog sees or says.   They say snow is the poor man's fertilizer because it contains a bunch of nitrogen - and since it comes from the snow it's free.  Every cloud has its silver lining - or in this case white lining.  There are all kinds of sayings.  The rich get their ice in the summer and the poor gets their's in the winter.  When the days begin to lengthen the cold begins to strengthen.  Or as e.e. cummings once wrote, The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.  The latter must have been written towards the end of winter when old e.e. was getting a bit grumpy. 

Not only does snow have nitrogen, it also means much needed moisture in the spring given our four year drought and it's doing a great job of insulating all those perennials in the garden.  I can't wait to see what survived.  That's what I love about perennials - the excitement in the spring when you first spot them unfurling their little green arms up out of the ground.  It makes you want to drop to the earth and lip smack them right on their tender little shoots.  It's a thrilling thing.  In the meantime, the great white bump continues to grow and poor old Crayola is scratching to get in . . . gotta go!