Spring in the North Georgia mountains is not just an intellectual exercise triggered when the calendar reads March 20. No, the bursting tree buds and daffodils that fill the woods, yards, and roadsides herald the beginning of the season with nary a calendar in sight.
Along with the buds and blooms, you can find both the casual gardener and professional farmer alike tilling our red Georgia clay into neat rows in anticipation of the growing season.
The National Gardening Association predicts that 43 million households will grow their own fruits, vegetables and herbs this year, up 19 percent from 
last year. Last week, first lady Michelle Obama showed her support for what might be called a 'growing' movement, by breaking ground for a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House.
Vegetable gardens are resonating with gardeners for environmental and health, as well as financial reasons. NGA estimates that a 600 square-foot garden costs about $70 to prepare and plant, but it will yield approximately $600 worth of produce during the growing season.
And, beyond the strictly monetary returns that a garden may provide, there is no price that can be put on the deeply satisfying intangible rewards that gardening brings. As Nathaniel Hawthorne waxed so eloquently in his short-story collection, "Mosses from an Old Manse:"
"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green."
The bewitchingly balmy breezes that have been wafting through the North Georgia mountains lately seem to be saying to the excitable gardener "plant now...plant now." Don't be fooled by the siren song. Soil temperatures are still too low and the threat of frost is still with us, so waiting another two or three weeks to plant your summer crops -- tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peppers, to name a few -- is the prudent course of action.
There are steps you can take in the meantime to ensure your garden is at it's fertile best when the time finally does come to plant:
• Prepare your soil. Skip this step, and you'll come to regret it. Now is the time to build a raised garden bed and till your soil with plenty of compost and organic fertilizer. A good rule of thumb for our heavy clay soil up here in the North Georgia mountains is to incorporate one part organic matter (compost or manure, for instance) and one part coarse sand into one part of your existing soil. You will also want to make sure your garden is situated in a sunny location that gets a minimum of six hours of sunlight a day.
And, if you absolutely MUST start planting, it's not too late to plant cold-weather crops like arugula, kale, collards, broccoli, cabbage, peas, and carrots.
Now get digging!
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