February Tasks

February tasks for the garden include doing all the January tasks I didn't do. :/
And planting begins inside this month! I've decided to follow Kathy's Gardening time table found here Skippy's Vegetable Garden , which means my onion seeds should go into a growing mix by next Monday. Which means I need to get to a garden center to get supplies Saturday morning. Ahh, garden centers, I've missed you!
My first seed packages came in the mail yesterday. It is like Christmas all over again!

From Pinetree Seeds I got two types of cucumbers: General Lee for eating fresh and Homemade Pickles to make ... homemade pickles! I bought beets again, hoping that this is the year they do well for me. I left the Detroit beets I had been trying and gave Early Wonder a try. I'm dreaming of a roasted beet salad with goat cheese. I also bought a package of leek seeds, American Flag which is also called Giant Mussleman. I have never grown leeks, but I love to cook with them. I bought another pack of my beloved 8 Ball Zucchini - this variety keeps producing and is just the right size for the two of us.  I also bought atomic red carrots. I can buy organic carrots at the grocery store very cheaply so I have decided not to grow normal carrots. But I love the idea of red or purple carrots from my garden to mix with the orange store bought. And I bought another package of freckles lettuce, because I loved the freckles lettuce I had last year. I still have some seeds left, but I wanted to make sure I did not run out of freckles lettuce this year!
January was unusually warm this year and I have been harvesting thyme, parsley, cilantro, summer savory and rosemary right up until last night. If I had known it would be so mild, I would have planted some cold weather vegetables!
Last night winter decided to come back and gave us a fairy land dusting of glittery snow that clung to every branch in my yard.

It is so pretty to look at and the roads are clear. My favorite kind of snow! I'm hoping that all the plants that started coming up thinking it was spring will survive the rest of winter and reappear when the weather warms up.

My lenten rose, still blooming, covered in snow. I think I will buy some more helleborus. It is such a pleasure to see something in bloom while all else looks dead and bare.

"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."
-  Gertrude S. Wister