Looking at the national weather map, I expect you'll think me insane for even posting the March garden chores -- I mean, I'm so bored by winter I'm even feeding my nemesis, the squirrels, for laughs! But the calendar says it's time, so here we go.  

March is the month when I often need two versions of the garden to-do list: one labeled, "If frozen..." and the other, "If thawed..." The glacier is nowhere near receding here, but the chickadees say emphatically that it will, and besides, certain seeds need starting indoors, anyhow.  Shall we find our way together gingerly into spring, with the March chores?

miss it last issue? 2 great giveaways, but hurry!

1. With help from the late Ruth Stout, I'm asking you to do two things this year: Use lots of good-quality mulch, and use less (no?) chemicals. Get two nuggets of Stout's 1961 wisdom, and a chance to win her book "Gardening Without Work." Take the pledge. 

2. If I say "heirloom," you'd probably say "seed," but the topic is heirloom bulbs -- and especially dahlias. A 101 and more from Mr. Heirloom Bulb himself, Scott Kunst of Old House Gardens, and win some bulbs.