Today, Spring arrives as the Earth's orbit around the sun brings its axis perpendicular with a line connecting the centers of our planet and its energy source. On the equinox, the sun is directly overhead at the equator. It rises due east and sets due west, everywhere.

We know it's March when one day the temperature is near sixty degrees, and the next, weather reports talk of snow. March is crazy. Rapidly lengthening days and swelling buds encourage us to begin planting; below freezing temperatures and snow hold us back.

Nevertheless, it is time to begin gardening. Start by planting seeds of lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes and peppers in containers in a greenhouse, south-facing window or under lights. A 5 by 7-inch flat of each of these vegetables will provide more than enough plants for most family gardens.

Now is also a good time to test the soil, so you know what you are working with, and can add amendments before planting. Check the compost pile to see if it's ready to be used, that is, if most of the ingredients are no longer recognizable and the earthworms have moved in. If it isn't ready, a turning should speed up decomposition. A one-inch-deep application of compost each year is the best way to enrich garden soil.

It may be time to begin planting outside, too. One tradition says peas should be in the ground by Saint Patrick's Day. The seed catalogues recommend sowing hardy vegetables as soon as the ground can be worked, meaning when it is neither frozen nor soggy. However, because seeds germinate slowly in cold soil, planting early may not necessarily mean that your seeds will sprout sooner.

Horticulturist and writer, Lee Reich, suggests in his book A Northeast Gardener's Year, that the first planting be done when the daffodils and forsythia bloom. These perennial plants respond to the overall trend in warming, ignoring the wild, day-to-day weather fluctuations. When these yellow messengers of spring put on their show, it's time to plant the earliest crops, such as peas, turnips, mustard, beets, carrots, chard, spinach, arugula, and dill.

Planted soon, these vegetables will be well established to grow rapidly in April, about the time you can set out broccoli, cabbage and lettuce seedlings.

Because peas don't produce well in the heat of summer, they need to be planted early to complete their life cycle before then. Besides the old-fashioned peas which are shelled from their pod before eating, two other varieties have become common. Snow peas and snap peas are popular types with edible pods. Snow peas are the thin ones often used in Chinese cooking. Their pods get tough as they swell up. This is not the case with Snap peas, however. The whole pod stays tender and delicious despite its size.

Peas are legumes; they support nitrogen-fixing bacteria, or rhizobia, on their roots. Here is a wonderful example of symbiosis. Peas provide carbohydrates and a home for the bacteria, which in return, provide nitrogen for the peas. The Earth's atmosphere is 80 percent nitrogen gas, but this is not usable by plants. Rhizobia bacteria are able to convert the gas into a form usable by themselves and the peas. Because these bacteria on the roots have to breathe, the air spaces in the soil are very important. Raised-bed gardens are so productive, in part, because the soil is loosened deeply, and then not walked on again. This is also the reason not to dig in soggy soil. Digging in wet soil can ruin its structure by collapsing important air spaces.

Most peas like some support to grow on, and some even demand it. They climb by means of their tendrils and do much better with a fence, netting or row of twigs to hold them up. This makes for better air circulation and easier picking. There's nothing much sweeter than fresh-picked peas. Some of the vines have beautiful maroon flowers, although white is more common.

Be on the lookout for those first delicious greens of spring - the wild ones. Dandelion greens are now about 5 inches long, almost big enough to eat, and the stinging nettles (which fortunately lose their sting when cooked) are over an inch high.

Happy Spring. Get growing soon!

This is Bill Duesing, Living on the Earth

This page and its contents are copyright © 1998 by WSHU-FM, Fairfield, CT, and by Bill Duesing.