Spring is Here

Yippee! Spring has arrived in Middle Tennessee! Sure, the risk of frost continues but a couple of days warm enough for sunscreen have convinced me that I really do like living here. Earlier in the week I hand-seeded white clover into the home pasture and the area of Lucy's pasture slated for alpacas. I had to stop to pull out the cell phone to take pictures (to be posted soon) of the emerging greenery, of honeybees sipping sap on a tree trunk, and of the denuded hillside from which much lumber was harvested this winter.

Then, when driving a town over to pick up Miss FiFi Mae, I encountered waves of bright yellow narcissi blooming along Central Pike. Such sights lift winter-weary spirits (not that mine ever suffered this year) and make me eager to plant. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll sow seeds for the garden and pick up the 100 pounds of Kobe Lespedeza grass seed to seed over the clover and beyond.

One wouldn't imagine that buying grass seed would be a difficult task. Well, I didn't put much thought into it before having to plan greens for feeding livestock. The "Forage Production 101" class I took with the Rutherford County Extension Service helped considerably, but even then my note-taking skills sought to undermine the process. When I showed up at Edward's Mill looking for white clover (they had it), Red River Crabgrass (it's too early in the season), and Kentucky Bluegrass (not appropriate for our climate), I walked out with clover seed and an order for serecia lespedeza seed. Like the Kentucky Bluegrass, the serecia lespedeza spreads by rhizomes and tolerates close grasing, so it has a better chance for survival with goats on it. When I was ready to plant, I checked my class notes for seeding rates only to discover that the serecia lespedeza is a warm season grass, just like the Red River Crabgrass. Oops. A call to an Extension Agent had me calling back the mill for the kobe lespedeza which I'll need to pick up shortly.

Oh goody! Spring is here and the landscape is turning green!