Happy Vernal Equinox

For the northern hemisphere, today is the Vernal Equinox or the first day of spring.  In the spirit of the new season, I volunteered at the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale where many people were engaging in the ritual of celebrating the end of winter by finding tender veggie and fruit plants to start their gardens. This sale focused on cool weather plants and the really big sale in May will focus on the summer plants.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this event was watching the children that were engaged in selecting the plants they would take home; asking questions about what vegetables the plants would grow and happily holding the selected starts high in the air to show off their new treasures.

These are columnar apple trees. They grow straight up on the single main trunk with no side branching. I like the whimsey of this style of tree an might plant one later in the spring.

And yes, I did bring home some starts: two kinds of broccoli, gourmet mix salad greens, onions and swiss chard. I highly recommend buying plants from Seattle Tilth to support this exceptional organization. Learn. Grow. Eat.