First of all, Happy Spring! February 2nd is Candlemas or Imbolc, the traditional first day of spring in the old calendar. From this day, the days become noticeably a bit longer. Birds begin to be more active and hens start to lay more eggs (all triggered by the increasing day length).
We had a beautiful day yesterday with mild temps in the low 50s and sunshine. The sunshine was really appreciated. The reporter on the radio said that in the entire month of January, we had only ONE DAY of sunshine. Everything else was partly cloudy, cloudy, partly sunny (I'm never sure of the diff between partly cloud and partly sunny...you'd think they'd be the same...).
I spent the entire morning tidying up the border in front of the Veg Garden. Looks so much better now. It has a lot of ornamental grass, coneflowers, asters and phlox, which I leave to the very last dregs because the birds like the seed heads. But now the seeds are gone and what's left looked pretty bad. I got all that done between loads of laundry, shopping for groceries, house cleaning my house and house cleaning my elderly friend's house. Today I'm hoping to get the next stretch, working my way up the hill. That will be the Greenhouse Garden, then up toward the old apple tree to the new path. I'm really looking forward to getting under the apple tree cleaned off because my snowdrops are up and blooming there. (Thanks again to my "Dear Friend and Gardener" Aspenhill for putting me right about which snowdrop varieties to plant. They are multiplying like crazy!)
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Indoors, I'm so pleased to report that I have two small pans of Shasta Daisies germinated! AND this is really like a miracle, some Hardy Hibiscus seeds that I have had for 6 years are germinating! I planted all I had and at least some are coming up, so I have hopes. The tiny little petunia seedlings are doing well. I found my home-saved Coleus seed yesterday (tucked between two packets of beans!), so I think I'll do a pan of those. If I remember correctly, they are from 2022, which means the seeds may have been from cross-pollination of my standard coleus with some very exotic looking "store bought" varieties. So these might produce something interesting.
I have decreed that Groundhog Day is the day I plant my parsnips (if there's no snow on the ground, which there isn't) so i better get out there and do that. May put in carrots as well; planting my carrots last year in February worked out very well. I have to remember to sprinkle a band of wood ashes around the carrot bed to deter slugs.
Well, out I go. Those parsnips aren't going to plant themselves, missy.
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| Snowdrops by aspenhill | Feb 7, 2024 1:51 PM | 1 |
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