Ahhh Spring - Its a Magical Time of Year

Tell me now, what is better than Spring?

It is wondrous, fabulous, awe inspiring, magical and miraculous.

Even though the astronomical date for Spring is March 20 this year, the trees are already setting their leaf buds, the crocuses are up, and the daffodils are making one of many attempts to rise from their winter dormancy.

This is the time of year when the groves and woods and forests literally pull tons of nutrients and water from the soil and convert it into tons of that new-green leafy canopy - and in only a matter of weeks !  How impressive is that? 

Scouring the Google, I finally landed on a couple of papers that gave me some of the numbers I was looking for, and which I then converted into pounds of tree canopy per acre of forest, wet weight.

17,843 pounds of leaves per acre of mixed forest are sprouted each spring, or so.  That's 2675 pounds of dry weight, or nutrients pulled from the soil.  And, 15,168 pounds of water weight, or 1821 gallons of water from the soil.   Per acre.  In a couple of weeks time.  That's a lot.  That's fast.

A single healthy, 100 foot tree, can put out 200,000 leaves.  In a couple of weeks time. That's a lot. That's fast.

With or without the numbers, the metamorphosis of our tree scape in Spring is magnificent to behold.  Ahhh, Spring.