Plant a Garden, Get a Tax Break?
By Roger Doiron, AlterNet.
From times immemorial, gardeners throughout the world have endured hardships of all kinds: floods, droughts, blights, swarming locusts, and, in the case of Dutch growers, centuries of uncomfortable footwear.

As a gardener from Maine, I have my own share of climate-related issues. Scientists have been noting that spring arrives earlier each year in the Northeast, a phenomenon I've been observing in my own yard. Last year, for example, spring started in Maine on May 2, almost two weeks earlier than usual, and ended on May 7.

For those of you who haven't been to Maine before, we have a fifth season -- mud season -- which is sandwiched between winter and spring and which helps explain why babies here are born wearing miniature LL Bean boots instead of pink and blue booties. Summer begins in Maine with the arrival of the first mosquito or out-of-state tourist, whichever comes first, and officially ends when all of them, tourists and stinging insects, have left.

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