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Though spring doesn't technically begin until the March equinox, I like to think of February 21st as my own personal start date for the new season. Peas tend to be the first seeds I sow in the new year: I plant my first batch the last week of February, and continue sowing into April. So far this year, we have had three overnight frosts since my first pea sowing, but today (March 15th), I noticed the first sprouts emerging. It looks as if they've escaped undamaged by frost. Shortly after the peas, I begin sowing brassicas and lettuce. Kale sowed on the first of March has just begun sprouting.
Early March is a good time to divide any garlic that were missed during the previous summer's harvest. I gently dig up the bulbs, pry them apart, and re-plant the divisions. Though I tend to plant the majority of my garlic crop in late October and early November, I find that spring plantings are worthwhile as well. I think the trick is to get them divided and re-planted as early as possible. I have heard from other gardeners that spring plantings of dormant cloves tend to result in much smaller plants than do fall plantings.
Late February and early March is the right time to divide and re-plant raspberries. I adore raspberries, and am continually amazed by their ability to form dense colonies, just asking to be divided and moved around the garden. I have very high hopes for a bed I planted last year with raspberries, planted several feet apart, and underplanted with strawberries. I anticipate that eventually the balance will shift in favor of the raspberries, but also hope to have at least a couple of years of both fruits living together in delicious harmony.
March is also when I stop the growth of my winter green manures, in some cases by smothering them with a thick layer of partially-decomposed leaf mulch, and in other cases by digging them in. I tend to allow some time to pass before planting into land that has just had it's green manures tilled-in/smothered: It makes sense to me to allow the fresh plant matter some time to begin decomposing before attempting to grow more crops in the same space. This is one situation where home gardeners have an advantage over many commercial farmers: We can generally afford to wait, if it means better long term results.
One sure sign of spring is the rapid increase in slug and snail populations. Most of my garden is heavily mulched, and they find this to be an ideal environment to live and breed. I offset their high numbers by setting slug traps made of yoghurt containers with 2" holes drilled halfway up their sides. I fill the containers up to the holes with a fermented yeast/sugar/water solution. I also place a piece of citrus rind into the bottom of the traps. On several occasions, each trap has yielded several dozen dead slugs each night! Every couple of days, I pour the yeast/water/slug slurry into the surrounding mulch, and refill the traps. I suspect that this liquid, though somewhat unpleasant to the eye, provides some fertility to the soil.
Recently, my thoughts have turned to which of last year's brassicas I will allow to flower and set seed. Vigor and flavour are my main considerations when selecting candidates for my informal breeding programs. Those plants which I do not intend to allow to set seed are watched closely, all delicious flower buds picked-off and eaten as soon as they form. In our climate, fresh vegetables really can be had year-round, with a bit of planning. There is absolutely no need to suffer any sort of salad gap in climate zone 7/8. Happy planting!