Everything is fresh and alive now that spring has arrived! That’s right, today is the official first day of spring!
Animals wake up and come out of hibernation ready to eat and enjoy the warm weather. As the days get longer, the temperatures give us a reason to leave the comfort of our cozy home and experience the upcoming beauty of flowers and bright colors. During this great time of year, there is an activity everyone can enjoy and do with family.
Spring begins when the Earth doesn’t lean toward or away from the sun and is right in the middle. Two times a year we have solstices and equinoxes. A solstice is when the sun’s strongest rays are the farthest away from the equator. Our summer solstice begins around June 21st in the northern hemisphere, and we have the maximum daylight hours. Our winter solstice is around December 21st, allowing us the fewest daylight hours. We have equinoxes in late March and late september, which gives everyone 12 hours of sunlight. In the northern hemisphere, we get these days around March 21st and September 21st.
Planting a beautiful garden in the spring adds gorgeous scenery and yummy fruits and vegetables. Some fruits and veggies are best to grow in certain seasons. In the spring lettuce is a great start to your new garden, taking around four to six weeks to grow. Radishes and Beets are yummy and similar to grow, although radishes take around 30 days and beets take around 60. Strawberries are a great fruit to grow in the early spring and take a long time to grow, so best to start early. These yummy fruits take 60 to 90 days to grow.
Avocados are amazing and best to grow them when in season, although these delicious fruits grow by tree. You must wait 3-4 years for the plant to grow to begin growing the fruit. If you start with the seed, you must wait around 13 years before enjoying your fruit. Limes and Lemons also take a long time to grow, these citrus plants are grown by trees and bushes and must be planted 15 feet away from your home and any other plant. These sour fruits begin to grow three years after their planting.
Now that the weather is warming up, this is the perfect time to begin your exercise outdoors. Going on a run, a bike ride or a hike is great in this weather, not too cold or warm. Getting your exercise in now is important as during the winter most people regress and slow down with their exercise, and in the spring they immediately go right back to what they were doing in the fall.
To prevent injuries, slowly get back into your rhythm; instead of running and jogging, start with a nice walk. This can reduce the chance of issues and injuries and will help your body get used to the feeling. Stretching before exercise is extremely important! You need to get your muscles prepared for the exercise you’re about to do. Stretching before and after exercise can help reduce your muscle soreness for the next day.
This beautiful season allows us to see gorgeous flowers that make spring beautiful, and your garden smells clean and fresh. Planting flowers is worth it, as seeing the vibrating colors when you look outside in the morning and the bees around them is wonderful. Tulips are bright and beautiful flowers to grow in the spring; this flower is a little difficult to plant but it’s completely worth it. Azaleas are gorgeous. These bushes are bursting with light pink shades and dark green leaves. To plant these bushes you should find an area with not lots of sunlight but also not too shady. These bushes are great for photos or a lovely background.
