PLANTING: “I can’t believe it,” Ormsby resident said Tuesday evening. “It must be an early spring.”

He called with news about how his yard has changed with the recent bout of warm weather, and what some of his plans for the planting season are.

“My apple trees are in bud,” Andy said Wednesday. “The shell is starting to crack. You can see a line of pink blossoms.

He’s never seen the apple buds this early, and his pear trees are doing the same thing.

Andy’s hoping the warmth doesn’t bring the apple blossoms out just yet, though. When the blossoms come out too early, they can be killed by frost and he doesn’t have apples.

“It’s been five years since we’ve had apples on our trees here,” he laments.

He noted he has an apple press that he’s only used about three times with his family.

Lack of fruit has not been a problem in recent years for his blueberry plants.

“My blueberries, oh, my lord, they did tremendous last year,” Andy tells us. “Berries so heavy, the branches were down to the ground.”

He’s looking forward to picking his Montana red raspberries that grow to be three-quarters of an inch to an inch across, too. Also, he’s putting in thornless blackberries plants he got from a man in Port Allegany. He heard the blackberry plants could eventually get 6 to 7 feet high.

He’s sent away for jumbo strawberries from Gurney’s seed catalogue that he’s going to plant in raised tubs. He raised tomatoes, carrots and radishes in the tubs last year.

“Worked out dandy,” he said.

He’s starting to see creatures around his property, such as ladybugs and a chipmunk — not a normal visitor for him in February. The chipmunk was on the feeder with its cheeks full of seeds.

The weather also has Andy thinking about wild leeks.

“I’m getting itchy to see if the leeks are up,” he said. “I’m getting hungry for leek sandwiches, leek dip, leeks any which way.”

He’s been picking leeks since he was about 3 years old, when his father starting taking him out.

Also regarding the unusually warm weather, Bob Rusiewski wrote Wednesday to share the start of his garden plans.

“On Feb. 21, 2017, I planted onions, spinach and peas,” he writes. “The earliest I ever planted. The peas and spinach did not make it but I had great (index finger sized) early spring onions on May 10, 2017, my earliest ever.

“Yesterday, Feb. 20, I planted 150 onion sets, now the earliest I ever planted. Hope they make it like last year.”