09: Happy Spring!
A love letter to the season that starts everything
What the first day of spring really means, and how to meet it
Today is the first day of spring.
Not the kind of spring that shows up in a Target display in February with pastel buckets and plastic grass. The real one. The vernal equinox. The day the sun crosses the celestial equator and light and dark finally sit in balance, 12 hours each, before the light begins to win.
Our ancestors did not need a calendar to feel this. They felt it in the soil, in the animals, in the quality of the air. They built entire festivals around it. Ostara. Nowruz. The Persian New Year. The Celtic honoring of Brigid. Every culture that ever lived close to the land marked this moment because they understood something we have mostly forgotten: the year does not begin in January. It begins now, when the earth actually stirs.
Today, March 20th, is that day.
And if you have been feeling a pull toward the outside, toward digging something, planting something, growing something, that is not a trend. That is ancient. That is your body remembering what it is.
What Is Actually Happening Right Now
The vernal equinox marks the moment the Northern Hemisphere begins tilting back toward the sun. Soil temperatures start climbing. Dormant seeds begin to sense the shift. Earthworms move toward the surface. Mycorrhizal networks in healthy soil wake up and start trading nutrients with plant roots again.
On regenerative farms across the country, this week looks like:
Pastures getting their first rotational grazing assessment of the season
Cover crops being evaluated before termination
Early direct seeding of cold-tolerant crops like spinach, arugula, peas, and radishes
Compost being turned and assessed for spring top-dressing
Farmers watching the soil, not just the sky
The land does not need a checklist. It already knows what to do. Our job is to pay attention and get out of the way.
What This Means for Your Garden
Whether you have a half-acre plot or four pots on a balcony, spring is asking you to begin. Here is what that looks like practically, wherever you are in the country.
If you are in the South or Southwest (zones 8-10) You are already behind on warm-season crops and right on time for a second cool-season push. Direct sow: beets, carrots, chard, and cilantro now. Start tomato and pepper transplants indoors if you have not already.
If you are in the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic (zones 6-7) This is your green light for cool-season crops outdoors. Direct sow peas, spinach, lettuce, and kale. Soil temps around 40-50 degrees are enough. Start your tomatoes, peppers, and squash indoors 6-8 weeks before your last frost date.
If you are in the North or Mountain regions (zones 4-5) You may still have frost but the light has shifted and your starts can begin indoors now. Focus on getting your soil amended and beds cleared. Onion sets and garlic (if you did not plant last fall) can go in soon.
One tip that applies everywhere: Before you plant a single seed, feed your soil. A two-inch layer of finished compost worked into your beds will do more for your harvest than any fertilizer or spray. Healthy soil grows healthy food. That is not a philosophy, it is biology.
The Ancestral Case for Gardening
There is a reason more people are turning back to growing their own food. It is not just economics, though that matters. It is not just distrust of the food system, though that is valid too.
It is something older.
Humans have been tending land for roughly 12,000 years. For most of that time, the relationship between a person and their food source was direct, physical, and reciprocal. You knew your soil. You knew your seeds. You saved them, traded them, passed them to your children. You ate with the season because there was no other way to eat.
That knowledge lived in the body. And somewhere in our bodies, it still does.
Gardening is one of the few acts left that connects us to that lineage. When you put your hands in soil, you are not just growing food. You are practicing something your great-great-grandmother understood as survival. You are slowing down. You are paying attention to something that cannot be rushed, optimized, or hacked.
That is a radical act in 2026.
Three Things to Do This Week
You do not need a plan. You need a start.
1. Get outside and look at your soil. Is it compacted? Sandy? Dark and loose? Poke it with your finger. Smell it. Healthy soil smells like rain and earth. If yours smells like nothing, it needs life. Start a compost pile or grab a bag of finished compost and get it into your beds this week.
2. Pick one thing to grow. Not a whole garden plan. One thing. Maybe it is herbs on a windowsill. Maybe it is a row of peas along a fence. Maybe it is a single tomato plant in a five-gallon bucket. Start there. The confidence to grow more comes from the experience of growing something, anything, once.
3. Find out where your food actually comes from. Spring is a beautiful time to connect with a local farm, visit a farmers market, or sign up for a CSA share. When you know the person who grew your food and you can see the land it came from, your relationship with eating changes entirely. That is what Find Back Forty is here to help you do.
A Note on Why This Moment Matters
We are living through a strange time for food. Supply chains are fragile. Small farms are closing at rates that should alarm us. The knowledge of how to grow, preserve, and prepare real food is disappearing from families in a single generation.
Spring is a reminder that the land is still here. The seeds are still viable. The soil is still alive, or can be brought back to life. The farmers who are doing it right are still out there, still showing up before dawn, still believing that what they are doing matters.
It does matter. And so does your garden, however small.
The equinox does not care how big your plot is. It just cares that you showed up.
Find Back Forty is a media platform and curated directory connecting people with regenerative land stewards across America. If you are looking for a farm to support this season, explore our directory at findbackforty.com.
And if you are a farmer or land steward doing this work, we want to tell your story. Reach out anytime.