Of Seeds and Squirrels' Ears

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Like me, you probably began dreaming about this garden season sometime during one of those deep, winter snows when the possibility of weeds and early blight seemed as remote as a healthy economy. Or maybe you were too busy sledding, hiking, shoveling or shivering to notice. Either way, hello Fairview, it really is spring! March 20th was the official date though nature rarely agrees with the calendar. Neither do most gardening centers, which insist on putting out a first wave of broccoli, cabbage and even lettuce starts only weeks after the Super Bowl. Like the chlorophyll junkies we are, the lure of those little green veggie starts is just too great that time of year, even when we know it’s eight weeks too early to plant anything but favas outdoors.

So if neither the spring equinox nor the garden centers are of any help in determining planting dates, what is? You might think a planting dates chart (http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NC/Asheville) is the answer and that’s a very good place to start. Such charts are based on the official planting zone chart (http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html). On the zone chart Fairview is considered zone six but then, so are parts of Texas, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Go figure.

Thankfully there’s a better way to know when to plant out – phenology. Phen who? Phenology is a fancy way of saying the things people have observed for eons. It was the passion of Carl Linnaeus (the father of plant taxonomy) and Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac) and is studied by universities for its usefulness in predicting everything from planting dates to when allergy sufferers can expect a bad spring. Put simply, it is the area of science that looks at recurring biological phenomena and how they relate to weather. Bird migration, the appearance of insects, and the blooming cycles of wildflowers and trees are just some of what plays into the dance of phenology. This type of data has been recorded by laypeople and academics for centuries and has nothing to do with the folklore of Punxsutawney Phil or woolly worm forecasting.

Do you know someone who always plants their beans on Good Friday or their peas either on St. Patty’s day or when daffodils begin to bloom? Perhaps you’ve heard, “Plant corn when oak leaves are the size of squirrel’s ears,” or, “when the apple blossoms begin to fall.” While oak leaves, apple blossoms and squirrel’s ears have nothing to do with each other, the rule works. Farmers learned that by the time conditions were warm enough for oak leaves to reach the size of a squirrel’s ear, or for apple blossoms to fall, the soil was warm enough for corn seed to germinate without rotting in the soil. Until you get have a few years of observations under your belt, here’s a planting chart to get you started. http://www.veggieharvest.com/Vegetable-Planting-Calendar/zone-6-vegetable-planting-calendar/