Spring. It’s time to plant.

Late March is the perfect time to plant in Alabama. The weather has warmed to the 60s and 70s during the day and the nights are typically in the 40s and 50s. We’ll still get a cold spell before April 15, as we always do, but it's nothing to worry about.

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System provides a good deal of informative material. My favorite is their yearly Alabama Gardener’s Calendar, which tells me exactly what tasks I need to do for my yard and garden each month. My other favorite resource is the Gardening in Alabama forum on GardenWeb.

After a trip to my favorite garden shop in Birmingham—Libby’s Plant Odyssey—I planted two blueberry bushes and two blackberry vines (two of each because they need to pollinate each other, I was told). Libby is a fount of knowledge all things flora.

Over the past week I’ve planted vegetables, mostly in pots: tomatoes, cucumber, squash, zucchini, eggplant. I have two pots of each, and more in the ground next to a trellis. I'll be planting more--I'm germinating sweet corn right now, and plan to add polebeans and peas.