Greenspace: Signs of spring popping up in the garden

Just before a recent snow, I noticed crocuses peeping from the soil. It doesn't take much to make me happy, and that fledgling glimpse of spring did the trick.

They'll be OK. They're designed for this weather. Despite what we've suffered, prespring has sprung. You can smell it. The birds are singing.

Our garden soil looks like it might be June before we can get in there. Record snow last month separated by days of heavy rain have turned it into deep muck. It's more suitable for the potter's wheel than planting.

With all this moisture, we can look for a very nice bulb season, fingers crossed.

Deep moisture of winter benefits gardens well into the summer. When the top dries, there will be plenty of moisture below, and it will last into the dry months.

Deep down, plenty's happening. One crop we all grow is rocks. These stones sit in our clay layer gathering and solidifying sediments. Then comes the heaving and subsiding cold of winter, and they move to the top. We should have record tonnage this year.

About 3 feet down, these roaming rocks share the bedroom with the first soil creatures to wake from winter -- worms. They are moving around, burrowing tunnels in search of worm food and other worms.

Meanwhile, back at the compost heap, it looks bleak. Months of hard freeze turned that pile of microbes into a monolith. But if you could ram a shovel deep in there, you'd find a fertilizer factory at work, even now. Heaps generate warmth all winter. As we chilled off in the fall, this attracted hordes of worms, sow bugs and other chewers.

They're in there doing lunch 24 hours a day. What goes into these guys must come out. That digested dinner helps add to the organic nutrient symphony.

Meanwhile, back at the bulbs, beware. They are the first food of the season for creatures hungry after winter hibernation.

We soon will be getting calls here from bulb gardeners frantic at marauding squirrels.

If you don't want to get a feral cat, head to the hardware store for a roll of chicken wire. Carpet your bulb beds with this, flattening it against the soil and staking it down with U clamps made from coat-hanger wire.

Squirrels absolutely hate the feeling of wire on their tootsies and will stay away. The bulbs will grow through the wire.

Despite its obvious drawbacks, I enjoy winter here. In Florida, they have so many sunny days they don't notice them. Here, sunny and warm in March is such a rare pleasure, we celebrate it.

I'll get busy on that as soon as I find the barbecue under the snow drift.

Send gardening questions to jim.hillibish@cantonrep.com