Frost, a Gardener’s Good Friend
(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)
This time of year the Earth does the old possum trick of playing dead. Not easily fooled, we know the leafless trees are merely dormant (scratch a twig with your fingernail and you'll see the green layer just beneath) and the daffodil bulbs just biding their time. When snow falls, tracks reveal that multitudes of creatures are still out and about. Snow fleas, a type of hopping insect that feeds on pollen grains scattered on snow and ice, appear as sooty dustings within those footprints.
This time of year the Earth does the old possum trick of playing dead. Not easily fooled, we know the leafless trees are merely dormant (scratch a twig with your fingernail and you'll see the green layer just beneath) and the daffodil bulbs just biding their time. When snow falls, tracks reveal that multitudes of creatures are still out and about. Snow fleas, a type of hopping insect that feeds on pollen grains scattered on snow and ice, appear as sooty dustings within those footprints.
