March, A Time To Think Green

MARCH. The month we wave goodbye to winter and think about those left-behind gardening projects. The weather is perfect for weeding, digging up and replanting bulbs, transplanting shrub/plant babies (those freebies we sometimes get), in-ground insect treatment if you haven’t already (trees and shrubs), planting seeds, and rethinking those outdoor pots. Indeed, March is the ‘green’ month when not wearing green on a certain day guarantees a pinch or two.

 St. Patrick’s Day, celebrated every year on March 17, is a fun day to ‘think green’ and that includes shamrocks (three-leaf clovers) and four-leaf clovers. I have a long history with clover. Memories of crawling on the grass as a four-year-old, as my mother gardened nearby, in search of the infamous four-leaf clover comes to mind. Patience was key but persistence always paid off. “Found one!” I’d shout. A rare find though. For every four-leaf clover found there are some 10,000 three-leaf clovers. Ireland prides itself as the country having the most four-leaf clovers. It’s the “Luck of the Irish” they would say, and in case you didn’t know, the four-leaf clover represents Trust, Hope, Love and Good Fortune.

Ever wonder why we pinch each other on St. Patrick's Day? The pinching tradition was started in America in the 1700s by Irish immigrants. They claimed that wearing green made them invisible to the leprechauns, those mischievous little fairies who liked to play practical jokes on people.

As for Saint Patrick, a 4^th century Roman Catholic saint, it’s said he used the green shamrock as a teaching tool to explain the holy trinity to Irish Catholics. People started wearing green after he died (March 17, 461 A.D.) to celebrate his memory. Celebration of St. Patrick's Day in Ireland predates the 1600s and became a holiday in America in the 1700s.

St. Patrick (Patricius) was born to a rich landowning family in Britain near the end of the 4th century, where exactly is unknown. During a raid of his family's land by Irish pirates, he was captured at the age of fifteen and taken to Ireland, where he was enslaved for six years. After hearing a voice in a dream, telling him how to escape, Patricius managed to flee his captors and return home. It was the basis of his religious conversion to Christianity. St. Patrick then returned to Ireland as a priest and missionary (around 430 A.D.), where he stayed for many years spreading Christianity everywhere he went. Tens of thousands were baptized and hundreds of churches were established all over Ireland.

 St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in Ireland with parades and family gatherings, and to some degree in the U.S. Parades are held in larger cities here and stores often stock up on corn beef and cabbage in preparation. Likewise, senior centers and similar places serve Irish Stew on the menu. I happened to be in Spokane once, before the pandemic, with streets barricaded and people lined up for a big parade. Kids (mostly) and adults in the crowd wore festive green costumes.

 As a child, I remember a gentleman walking through my neighborhood playing his bag pipe on this holiday. In grade school my classmates and I must have cut out dozens of shamrocks. We had fun pinching each other when we forgot to wear green. Then we listened to our teacher read stories about leprechauns and ate cookies with green frosting our mothers had baked. 

 So, before you think about removing clover from your grass, think Irish and four-leaf clovers. Did you know that some plant clover from seed in pots? It’s also considered an excellent ground cover as a natural fertilizer to improve soil. It attracts pollinators too. On the Westside clover grows quite well with all that moisture. But go ahead, try outdoors. It’s how we learn. Guessing though you would have more success indoors, where you can mist the clover and control how much sun it gets. And…don’t forget on March 17^th to wear green. Happy Gardening everyone