The earliest green plants in USDA zone 7a

Super brief update: I live in Norway now.

And it’s mid-march, and I’m soooo ready to see green growth and colorful flowers. Most of the grass here is still dry and brown, and the winter bare trees are only just starting to bud. I’ve got a few green plants coming up, and that’s where this blog comes in.

I’m desperate to optimize for fresh green growth in early spring. So desperate that I painted my dead lawn green last week. It makes me smile, and I hear the Alice in Wonderland song, “We’re painting the roses red!” every time I look out the window.

Each day, I’ve been going out to document the very earliest plants to leaf-out so I can spread them more evenly around the garden. And since this blog is partly educational, and partly my gardening journal, you’re along for the ride in documenting the very earliest green plants in the cold-cold USDA zone 7 (a) spring.

With so many pictures of green plants, you’d think I’m surrounded by lush vegetation. Instead these are the tiny first instances of green surrounded by dry grass, gravel, or leaves. It looks more like this: