Yesterday or the day before I posted on my Facebook page a photo of daffodils shooting above ground in my yard, noting my concern that it was only the end of January and this was too early and not a good sign (climate crisis).
Others noted similar happenings in the soil where they were.
Some (mostly in Minneapolis area) noted how damn cold it is there (stay warm and safe, friends!)
A voice or two suggested this is not atypical for New Jersey (with an under-message that perhaps my worry was misplaced? or based on a decade or two in the past?).
Today I bring you a photo of my GARLIC trying to make its way into the world.
Again, it’s still the end of January. Given that we have had temperatures in the 40s and 50s, I can understand why the garlic is confused. I am confused, too. But the garlic has no mechanism for rationalizing why or why not it’s okay. It just knows that the weather is the kind of weather it needs to grow up and above the surface of the soil, so it is doing so.
This is not right.
This is not good.
This is not good for those shoots, especially because the forecast for two days from now is 8 degrees.
So, I have covered them with mulch (thank you Past Karen who bought way too much cut hay and kept it dry in the garage, not even knowing this would be the use).
And in so doing, having already dressed for my professional day at the office, I will be bringing some of the stick-to-me hay bits along for the work day.
May we all say a prayer for those garlic plants, my most favorite thing to grow, for it signals an optimism not native to my temperament:
May the warmth of the mulch protect you from the hard, hard freeze about to descend upon us.
May the soil surrounding you hold you tight until later in the spring, when you shall shout your goodness into the spring air.
May you, as you do each season, tower over the other spring vegetables, cheer-leading them along their own fruitful path.
May enough of you survive, that some of you be given away to surprised & pleased neighbors & friends.
May your flavors be robust and picante.
May the protection I have offered you today be not too late.
May the protection we generate, even at this late date, not be too late.