THE SEASONS OF THE GARDEN

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It's early spring . . . and while some parts of the country still sleep under a blanket of snow, elsewhere the snowdrops and daffodils make their welcome appearance, and the sunshine-yellow forsythia brightens wet fternoons. Days lengthen, the air mellows, and green shoots break through the damp soil. Plant a "fingers crossed" crop of smoothseeded peas on St. Patrick's Day . . . and hope for the luck of the Irish!

If this month's Plowboy Interview with John Jeavons (beginning on page 16) has you hankerin' to learn more about biodynamic/French intensive horticultural techniques, you're in luck. MOTHER is offering a series of two-week gardening workshops this spring and this summer on her beautiful mountain acreage. Attendance will be strictly limited to six persons per session, so each student will be able to have plenty of hands-on experience with creating French intensive raised beds, wide-row rototiller/mulch gardens, and innovative plots for perennial vegetables and herbs. Attendees will also be able to work in MOTHER's solar green houses . . . help design new gardens and landscaping plans . . . and discuss — with experts — the latest in horticultural techniques. The cost (including camping) is $250 per two-week session, and special provisions can be made for longer-term apprenticeships. (Since attendance is so limited, there are no provisions for families or pets.)

If you'd like to apply, write (including your telephone number) to Kerry Sullivan and Barbara Turcotte, THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS®, P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28739. Include a brief statement giving your prior gardening experience and the reasons for your interest in the program. The workshops will be held April 6-79, April 27 to May 10, May 18-31, June 22 to July 5, and July 20 to August 2 . . . and since applications for the first session should be in to Kerry and Barbara by March 10, you'll have to hurry!

FROM THE CATALOGS

Seed catalogs continue to appear in MOM's mailbox, and there are plenty of featured new crop varieties for the innovative gardener to try this season. Two exclusive items in the free 1980 listing from Thompson & Morgan (Dept. TMEN, Box 100, Farmingdale, New Jersey 07727) are particularly noteworthy: Blondy, the world's first predominantly female zucchini squash . . . and an exotic Italian broccoli named Romanesco.

Blondy is enormously productive: A heavy concentration of female blooms (with just enough essential male blossoms to ensure pollination) appears even before the true leaves are fully developed ... and the first golden fruits are ready for harvest in just 45 days. The white heads of Romanesco broccoli resemble clusters of tropical coral . . . and you can get two crops a year of the creamy buds if you set your first hardy transplants out three or four weeks before the last frost.

Nichols Garden Nursery (Dept. TMEN, 1190 North Pacific Highway, Albany, Oregon 97321) also has a number of new offerings. The disease-resistant Corvallis pea will be a boon for damp-spring climates where the soil is unworkable until April. Corvallis is highly resistant to enation mosaic virus, and moderately resistant to pea streak disease. Nichols is also offering Tutti Fruitti, a small French everbearing strawberry with superb flavor and a creeping habit. Northern gardeners will be thankful for two new melons from Nichols: Earlisweet, a three-pound cantaloupe that's ready for the table in just 68 days . . . and Earli Dew Hybrid, a remarkable honeydew that matures in only 75 days.

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