On a recent, beautiful, early spring morning, my “wheels” for the day waited just outside.

Actually, that should read that my “wheel” waited outside. That’s because the transportation mode of the day rolls on only one wheel, and it’s on our old, heavy, battered, steel wheelbarrow.

The wheelbarrow was already in transit, temporarily parked halfway between its home base at the barn and its destination at the garden beyond the field road. The wheelbarrow and its first load of the day, straw laced with poultry manure, was on hold while I tackled office and house chores. With the afternoon predicted to be near record-high temperatures, inside deadlines had to be met before the load of litter could be dumped.

Earlier in the week, a farm-sized version of my backyard wheelbarrow showed up, parked on the far side of the split rail fence: the liquid manure tank being readied for spring hauling. Minus a barnful of dairy cows, the tank sees much less use than in earlier years. A dry-manure spreader now shoulders most of our natural fertilizer-application trips.

Manure spreading equipment — whatever size or version — is one of the many farm and garden icons of springtime. It’s a job of critical timing, hugely dependent on favorable weather conditions: dry enough that heavy equipment can move over the fields without causing serious soil compaction, but not pushed so late that spreading interferes with and delays planting.

Some years, the weather is most cooperative — other years, not so much, which can generate farmer (and gardener) frustration ahead of the spring planting crunch.

The classic equipment of spring replaces some of that more familiar to winter, as snow plows are parked back in a far corner of the shed or behind a barn, while fertilizer spreaders and planters begin putting in their appearance around farms.

Around the house and yard here, similar switches begin taking place. Soon (but not too soon to tempt fate), the shiny aluminum manure shovel that I prize for porch and sidewalk snow removal will be toted from its winter parking spot on the back porch and stashed away. Its summer storage is out of sight, so it doesn’t disappear, lugged off for some summertime use and not returned before snow threatens again.

Taking its place is a typical backyard tool of early spring, a metal leaf rake. Ours has already seen considerable late-winter use during some of the early, unseasonably warm days. It’s also very much in need of being replaced, or at least supplemented with a newer one sporting complete, straight prongs.

Believe it or not, another equipment icon of spring — the lawn mower — already was spotted in use nearby weeks ago. Given the fact that it’s snowed twice since we observed the first lawn-mowing in early March, we speculated that leaf litter remaining from last fall was perhaps being chopped up. Or, maybe the lawn mower was just getting an early check-up to make sure it was operating properly.

Not yet ready to fire up the lawn mower, I instead drag out the garden hoe to clean dead plant material from sections of the vegetable garden and replace it with the poultry-enriched straw waiting in the wheelbarrow. Some cleaned sections of the garden are also getting a temporary blanket of yet another familiar item of spring for many gardeners and produce farmers: a layer of black plastic.

Plastic pieces go down in our garden primarily to warm sections of the ground and discourage weed volunteers until actual planting time. Heavy cardboard and grass clippings, straw and hay mulch will replace all but very narrow strips of the plastic for warmth-loving tomato, pepper and squash seedlings. Even those narrow plastic row covers will get a grassy mulch later, to shade roots when summer’s heat cranks high.

One icon of spring is at work in the greenhouse, clay flowerpots holding early greenery for the porch planters. A recent gardening article that made me laugh encouraged making brand-new clay pots look old by slathering them with things like baking soda or clay, then letting it dry before scuffing it up.

Gee, all this time I’ve been scrubbing off the scruffy clay pots, especially for use in gifting plants. Who knew the scruffy, well-used-looking ones were so much more iconic and “trendy?”

So much for being trendy around this backyard.

As the days get warmer and brighter, the temptation to put off indoor chores and go outside can overpower the best of us, as columnist Joyce Bupp has found.

Columnist Joyce Bupp sees harbingers of Spring in the visit of a red-winged blackbird and cheery winter aconites.

Thanks to some quick thinking, columnist Joyce Bupp's grandson was able to save the day when a one-in-a-million shot resulted in a small fire on the farm.

Columnist Joyce Bupp suggests always keeping some cash on hand, despite the current emphasis on digital transactions.

Columnist Joyce Bupp attends to the miracle of nature that seeds offer each season.

Eastertime on the farm is full of sights and sounds that lets us know spring is around the corner. 

Trees provide us with many gifts: oxygen, shade, habitats for birds and critters and so much more.

Joyce Bupp is a freelance writer in York County, Pennsylvania.

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