Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Callie Lipkin

It looks like the weather in the Mid-Atlantic will burst into spring this weekend, with temperatures expected to be in the high 60s and low 70s.

It is irresistable gardening weather, but gardeners may have to do just that. Resist.

Barbara Damrosch, writing in the Washington Post today, says that garden soil is probably still too wet to work and doing so will certainly compact it, shutting down the worm tunnels and air pockets that plants need. Compaction is particularly harmful in the clay soil we have in many parts of Maryland.

She is writing primarily about vegetable gardening, but even lawns (yes, the much-hated lawns) will suffer if you walk on them when they are this wet.

How wet is too wet? If you sqeeze the soil and it stays in your hand in a clump, it is too wet to work.

The time to improve your soil, Damrosch writes, is actually in the fall. Add compost and other soil amendments then, with the soil is dry and it has time to take in the nutrients. Don't try to do that now.

But what about clean-up? Can't we just go out and start to clean up the mess left by this damaging winter?