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February 09, 1989 - Stirrings of Spring Beneath the SnowB8 The Suffolk Times • February 9, 1989 Stirrings of Spring Beneath the Snow By Paul Stoutenburgh At the beginning of February I start looking for signs of warmer weather. It's time to get out and start pruning the grapes and fruit trees, plus all the addi- tional overgrowth that seems to pop up from nowhere. So when that break came in the weather last week I grabbed my pruning shears and headed for the back part of the garden where my thinning operations would begin. It was one of those wam ish days and I took time to dig down and pull the last remaining carrots from the newly thawed ground. The tops were gone for about three inches in the wet, cold ground. Previous freezing had turned them into mush but the bottom half where the freeze hadn't reached was still good. A little washing and trimming up and I had the freshest, snappiest carrots you could imagine. Next year I'll mulch over the top and hopefully have good carrots all the way down. Growing alongside the tool shed, where it would get the best exposure from the sun, I spied an old friend, yel- low jasmine, blossoming. Years ago I had transplanted a small shoot from my son's place where it had gone wild in back of an old barn. I have often won- dered who planted it years ago when the 'farm was bustling with life with horses, pigs and chickens. The old barn still shows the stalls where the horses were once kept. Surely there was time for a bit of beauty even in those rugged days when the thrust of living was toward survival on the farm. Perhaps it was the farmer's wife who put the jasmine there. Bur- dened with the many chores of the farm she may have felt she needed that gleam of things to come during the bitter win- ter. When the yellow blossoms burst forth in bleak February there would be hope. Later on, after pruning, I'd break off a short stem and bring my bit of hope to the dinner table. New Arbor This Year There are some basic rules in pruning but a great deal of what is cut and what is not cut depends on the individual, at least that's the way it is in my orchard and grape arbor. I had the grapes trained on trellises until last year when I built an overhead arbor. I can remember when I was really small going to someone's place where there was a grape arbor. How cool and wonderful it was to sit under it when outside the sun was shimmering in the heat of summer. My Focus on Nature grapes have gotten a good start; so with a little patience and trimming they'll soon start to cover the overhead. In all pruning, whether it is grapes, apples, pears, peaches or just cutting back the rose bush, one cannot help but notice the buds formed last year. It's in these tightly packed bundles that the plant's future lies. From them the green leaves that perform the miracle of pho- tosynthesis takes place where the energy from the sun is converted along with elements from both the earth and the air to provide the foodstuffs so vital for the plant's growth. In some of the buds there will be flowers for reproduction and in the spring they will burst forth in all their beauty and fill the air with fra- grance. Our busy lives have little time, I'm afraid, to appreciate these simple plant wonders. It's good that little things like the yellow jasmine blossoms against the old tool shed caught my eye and brought me humbly to my senses. I could once again appreciate the splendor of this universal miracle. From my garden fence I can look across the pasture and see the first hint of spring color in the willows down by the pond. This is noticeable wherever willows can get a foothold in the wet earth. The pale greenish - yellow of the buds and stems of this water - loving tree is a sure sign that something's going on. Down at the pond where the ice has melted the goldfish have moved out from their muddy beds to swim slowly around and flex their muscles that have been dormant through the icy months of winter. It's early for them to be up and about as the winter cold has not com- pletely left us and its chill will return soon driving them back to the safety of the muddy bottom. Days Begin to Lengthen What gnaws away at winter's cold and makes the wonder of spring happen each year is the lengthening of the day. Al- ready we can see the difference. People who work 'til five no longer drive home in the dark. This change in the length of the day triggers the plants and animals to stir. The salamanders, toads and frogs that have lived through their hibernation will slowly feel its effect. The anti- Goldsmith ' s 138 Main Street, Greenport, New York • 477 -0466 Q� 1. Cordless *''`` Telephones T CBs \ .e. Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh GREAT HORNED OWL —This is our largest native owl and the earliest of all birds to nest. They use other birds' abandoned nests and sometimes incubate their eggs under a blanket of snow. freeze in their system that kept them from death's freeze will slowly let the fluids again circulate through their bod- ies. Soon salamanders will be going to their vernal ponds where they'll mate and lay their eggs. Some ponds will still have a trace of ice in them but na- ture's schedule of events waits for no one. The great horned owl, the tiger of the forest, has by now probably selected an abandoned crow's nest and is courting a mate. The owls are early nesters for they do not have to wait for warmer weather and the return of life; their food supply of rodents is available year- round. I'll never forget that wonderful photograph of a great horned owl incubating its eggs with a layer of snow completely covering bird and nest. Close up against the bare skin of the owl, where the heat transfer is the greatest, the eggs are warm and secure. Inside the miracle of a new generation is being formed. In the bay the mergansers, the buffle- heads, the common mallards, the wary black ducks and others have started to pair off. From here on we'll see a con- tinuous parade of mating rituals that will last 'til the birds actually start lay- ing their eggs. Most of the wild ducks will leave our area and head north to bring off their broods while many of the mallards will remain to nest nearby. I'll be getting calls about mallards nesting in flower boxes, under docks or in the garden. All these and many other signs will bring joy to most of us. Like the yellow flower I found in February, it reassures us that our world is still func- tioning the way it should. Exciting Guts for Your Sweetheart! 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