There is no foliage on the trees yet; only here and there the red bloom of the soft maple, illuminated by the declining sun, shows vividly against the tender green of a slope beyond, or a willow, like a thin veil, stands out against a leafless wood. – John Burroughs

The Fifth Week of Early Spring

The March 24 cold front, like the March 14 system, is often mild, and it is followed by some of the driest and brightest days so far in the year. In the low-pressure trough that precedes the March 29 cold front, the 28th is typically one of the warmest days in March, with highs above 60 degrees occurring five days in 10 at the 40th Parallel and below.

Countdown to Spring

• One week until Canadian geese are nesting and laying their eggs, until tulip season and the first wave of blooming woodland wildflowers and the first butterflies. And raspberry leaves are ready for tea

• Two weeks until golden forsythia blooms and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves and the lawn is long enough to cut

• Three weeks until American toads sing their mating songs in the evenings and corn planting time begins. Watch for morel mushrooms to swell in the dark

• Four weeks until the peak of Middle Spring wildflowers in the wood and the full bloom of flowering fruit trees

• Five weeks until the first rhubarb pie

• Six weeks until the first cricket song of Late Spring

• Seven weeks to the great warbler migration through the Lower Midwest

• Eight weeks until the first roses and orange ditch lilies open and until all tender vegetables and flowers can be set out in the garden

• Nine weeks until the high canopy shades the garden

• 10 weeks until mulberries are sweet and cottonwood cotton drifts in the wind

In the Field and Garden

Lettuce and other hardy sprouts can be moved to the cold frame even in the coldest years. Horseradish, dock and dandelion root are ready for digging. Plant the first sweet corn as conditions permit.

All farm tools and implements, seeds, herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides should be on line.

Termites swarm in the third to fourth week of March, depending on the character of early spring. Don’t mistake them for flying ants.

Almanack Literature

On a Dark and Stormy Night…

By Diane Meier, Elizabethtown, Ind.

It was a dark and stormy night. Not really!

But it was a dark, warm summer night. Our old farmhouse stood on a high hill close to the road. Any activities in our yard were easily visible to cars traveling by. We were always careful to keep the front curtains in the house closed at night. As further caution and to prevent potential embarrassment, we would always listen for cars passing by before we made a run to the outhouse, which was also close to the road. Who wants to be caught going to the outhouse?

As it happens, my sister hung clothes on the clothesline alongside the house earlier in the day. You should know that there were no trees on this side of the house, so the view was unobstructed. Later that evening, she went out to take them down – in her underwear. After all, it was dark out.

But she didn’t listen for cars. BIG mistake! What was she thinking? She didn’t follow the rules.

Just as she was taking down the clothespins, a car came down the road.

I couldn’t help it. I flipped on the outside light and there she was. She didn’t see the humor in it.

Copyright 2025. W. L. Felker