I did, after my extended stay at O’Hare, finally arrive home over the weekend. I’d been gone for 12 days on what felt like the longest business trip of my life, including stops in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
When I left Iowa, the snow had indeed begun to melt, but was still shoulder-high and causing trouble. I returned to a mostly snow-free landscape, although the disappearance of the white has left Iowa khaki-dreary—no blossoms, no green grass, no growth. This happens every year—there’s always a period of time between winter and spring (and by 
spring, I’m not talking about the post-equinox season, but the actual reappearance of color) when the landscape offers nothing to the eye other than wide swaths of blandness.
In my backyard, a small patch of snow survived in an area of the yard that’s shady most of the day. But the garden is, once again, uncovered, and what a mess it is, although it’s a mess that’s going to feed the garden nicely once the growing season starts up in earnest. Most of the bed is matted with leaves and decaying plants that I never pulled up before the snow brought any hope of that abruptly to an end, and I think I can probably just turn that stuff under so last year’s plants and leaves give this year’s plants a little bit of boost.
But on one end of the garden, garlic is already sprouting through the layer of mulch I put down when I planted it last fall, and when I crouched down to take a look, I noticed something particularly exciting. 
Not only is the garlic getting its grow on, but there are some baby spinach leaves coming up out of the ground.
I suspect my poor gardening practice of letting the spinach bolt and not dealing with it in a timely fashion has resulted in some inadvertent reseeding, and that means I’m all set up for fresh greens without any work on my part whatsoever.
Rock on.
Rock on indeed. I think I’ll do that this year!
Jenny, it’s certainly much easier than, you know, actually working at it. :-)
No fuss spinach…gotta love it!
My garlic sprouted this week, too — and the chives. Maybe this summer I’ll have to plant some spinach and let it bolt!
I’d rather keep my snow than see Spinach growing in my garden :)
Q: What’s the difference between spinach and boogers?
A: wiseacre doesn’t eat spinach
We do grow spinach. I’m the only one who doesn’t like it but once in a while some slips between my lips when my wife makes my salad.
Margaret Roach, in A Way to Garden, claims to sow her spinach seeds in the hardened earth of late fall to get early sprouting spinach in very early spring (what we call mud season around here).
I had a 12-day business trip once, but it was to Paris (and it was 15 days). Yeah, I hate me too. I’m kind of scared to go outside and document the carnage. Lucky for me the weatherman is calling for 3 days of rain so I can put it off for a little while more.
Jeff-nhn, I do! I do!
Wiseacre, sorry you are not a spinach lover, but at least you’re willing to grow it for your family — that’s quite big of you. :-)
Kathy, that’s really interesting — I might try that next year…
Heather, and not only can you put it off because of the rain, but the rain’s helpful, so you don’t even have to feel guilty!
Leafy greens really keep me going during the cold weather months. Sometimes I just crave them even! Thanks for entering this into Weekend Herb Blogging.
Cheers,
Ramona
Ramona, I definitely crave them, often. Thanks for hosting WHB this week!
I’m so pleased to hear your snow has gone at last. Shoulder high… yikes! We all fall apart if we get at an inch over here in the UK….
Nezza, it was ridiculous! I know the UK can get awfully gray and dreary over the winter, but this was nuts…
Are all your winters that snowy, or was this a bit of an exception? I’d be so depressed by the end of that.
Nezza, this was a bit of an exception, but still, out of hand. And even when it’s not like this, there’s always the fact that it gets bitterly, bitterly cold here. I can barely stand it.