As the light returns to us, Alaska is once again seeing consistent temperatures above freezing.   While we may see a Chinook in December that pops the temperature up to 50F for a few hours, we don’t see any true progress towards summer until late March and early April.  Spring equinox brings the promise of more sunshine than night – and the slow disappearance of the many feet of snow on our landscape.  Even though things are still white, our thoughts turn to summer gardens, hikes into the hills, and salmon tugging at our lines.

When most of the country is already planting their gardens, we still look outside to see frozen ground and morning frost.  Here in the Interior, our typical last frost is the 1^st of June - though I have had plants nipped or killed by frost in every month of the summer.   Our first hard frost in the fall is around August 25th. Consequently, the interior gardening season barely reaches 90 days.  Our soils remain cold all summer.  I have dug post hole on June 15^th and hit frozen dirt at three foot.  In many cases, our gardens have to literally grow on ice.  The only saving grace for Alaskan gardeners is that the 23 hours of daily sunshine we will see by the Summer Solstice allows plants to grow virtually all day.  Nonetheless, Alaskans still have to employ many tricks to coax plants in fruiting before frosts strike.  Starting seeds indoors is essential.

I already have Spring fever.  My first seeds go into flats today.  Most everyone I know is busy planting rows and rows of flats for seedlings to be placed under lights, in warm southern windows, and anywhere else they can get them to grow.  Commercial greenhouses are humming with activity, filled with customers seeking a brief tropical oasis from the cold air outside even though they have little to sell.   Because we have so little sunshine in winter and heating costs are so high, most people shut their greenhouses down in September.  Once there is enough light and solar gain to provide a large fraction of the heat, owners slowly starting reopening them in about March or April.  In recent years, with increased heating costs, many owners significantly delay opening their greenhouses in spite of their customers, starting seeds in tiny flats under lights in a corner of their shop.  Only later are these small seeds are transplanted into their larger pots.  These tiny bits of green serve only to tease those of us ready for summer.

Still, in spite of the cold, the promise of rebirth strikes our landscape as strongly as it does our southern neighbors.  One of my favorite Easter pilgrimages is to drive high up in the mountains.  Here, the brief instances of warmth have polished the snow and ice into sculptures.  Frozen waterfalls glisten, hidden before by snow and night, reflecting deep blue at their core.  Ice becomes crystalline, taking on new and unexpected forms just before it disappears for the year.

For those of us who hunker inside all winter, we find a freedom that has been absent.   Temperatures around freezing are short sleeve weather for those of us accustomed to thirty below.   As a southern transplant, I still find it odd to see people wearing shorts and flip flops while there is still snow on the ground.  Bicycles, sport cars, and motorcycles make their first appearances.  People cook steaks on their grills, with beer iced in snowdrifts a few feet away.  In Fairbanks, the first geese and swans to arrive always make front page news.  While Alaskans brave the winter, in truth, we live for our glorious and brief summer.    As snow turns to slush and mud, we wait impatiently for the season to follow.