Current Issue

The Mud Season

This Spring Home and Garden issue comes out a  er one of the harshest winters the Cape has experienced in quite some time. Snow hangs around where it was piled in the shade so many weeks ago. All that melting has introduced the Cape to a longer mud season, the time of year when warming soils shake off their frozen moisture and absorb the snowpack to create a boot-stealing mire. It becomes impossible to move heavy wheelbarrow loads across the yard without, at the least, creating deep furrows in the lawn.

Meteorological spring begins on March 1, when the winter winds are still howling and weeks before astronomical spring, when the world tilts itself to that degree in front of the sun. This winter more than most, our desire to be out-of-doors is strong. Little yardwork has been accomplished even by the most-diehard gardeners. Some of our usual winter projects, usual for us at any rate, such as moving large rocks, digging up stumps, cutting back old growth, trail maintenance and fi xing and upgrading garden structures, have been on hold. We feel behind on our usual duties.

With the sunshine melting the world around us we can safely begin starting our seeds indoors, ready for the frost danger to be in the rearview mirror. This spring contains a fair amount of storm cleanup, too. The pine trees around the yard in particular have shed branches, littering the ground in abundance. Others will have whole trees to cut up and move before the spring work begins.

Even with this year’s spring challenges, it will still be a great feeling to be outside again in the warming sun. We will just take extra care to take off our mud-spackled boots before entering the house.

John H. Hough