Every year, I look forward to April. It’s a very special month.

First of all, the last frost date is in April, whereupon it’s time to rock and roll in the garden.

Much lusted-after seeds, purchased months before, can go into the ground and begin the journey that will hopefully end with a tasty treat for Jim and myself.

Secondly, April is the month that the old cherry trees on 33rd Avenue Northwest and Northwest 77th Street bloom, the entire block of them, and they are beautiful.

Folks line up on the sidewalk with very fancy cameras to capture their pink ballet-slipper flowers.

But this spring is different. This year, and this year only in anyone’s memory, the cherry trees have bloomed, bloomed in March, and early March at that.

Everything seems to be blooming, sprouting or emerging. Will they regret it with a blast of cold weather? It’s anybody’s guess.

So let’s just say that it’s an anomalous year and not go into possible reasons.

As a gardener (a new gardener, by no means an expert), all this early activity really affects those tried-and-true dates I have been taught, i.e. President’s Day for pea planting, St. Patrick’s Day for potatoes.

This year, I know folks who planted their peas in January, and they are not sorry.

Not everyone is ready to jump on the plant-early bandwagon.

I consulted with Ingela Wanerstrand, owner of Green Darner Garden Designs (and a true expert), who is a little more cautious.

“I’m kind of a skeptic when it comes to weather,” she laughs. “Don’t rush out and plant basil or tomatoes”.

I ask Wanerstrand, whose specialty is designing and installing edible gardens, what I should go ahead and plant now.

“Oh”, she says. “Plant peas, plant spinach, plant cool crops like arugula, cilantro, radishes. Early broccoli or cauliflower."

Sounds reasonable.

She also has a special tip for potatoes: instead of paying premium prices for seed potatoes (many store-bought potatoes are sprayed with a sprouting retardant), buy them organic at the farmers market. Organically grown potatoes are not sprayed and are perfectly good to plant.

If this winter and spring are any indication of summer, we could have another warm summer and then, wow, we could even think tomatoes, think melons, think okra (well, maybe not okra).

At any rate, think food.

And if you can, enjoy the cherry trees now.

Rhonda lives in Ballard and is the Urban Crop Circle Project Leader for Sustainable Ballard. Questions, comments, ideas? You can reach her at Rhonda@sustainableballard.org.