Dreaming of Green

We’re in the doldrums on February. The days are just a smidgen longer, the light is changing, and on a warm day you can almost feel the hope for spring... But it’s still dark very early, it’s still freezing cold , and it could be winter for another 5 weeks in NJ if we’re unlucky (or longer if we’re really unlucky!). In milder years we could start looking for the crocus, hellaboris and forsythia to come out in another week or two - but with a low tonight of -5 degrees (NOT including windchill), that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

So instead this week I’m dreaming of warmer weather and planning the gardens in the yard. Before I know it, I’ll need to start the tomato seeds. And it would be a good idea to get our order in for sprint plants. We don’t need much, but it would be fun to get a few small things.

I wanted to plant a butterfly weed in the mailbox garden last fall, but by the time we got the garden in (thanks to the street construction delays) it was too late in the season to order it. I also need to get a new set of dalhia bulbs - a few for the raised bed garden for flowers cutting and then a few more for some bare spots in the yard. This past fall I pulled up the dahlia bulbs late (due to the ankle injury) so I’m not sure the dahlias from last year will even come back. Last but not least on my shopping list, I think it would be fun to find a spot for some asparagus. It’s a cool weather vegetable so it comes up early, and I love things that come back year after year. It will take a few years before we can have our first harvest, so I’d like to add it in this year.

Photo credits: Seeds of Change | Wikipedia Commons | Rhode Island Dahlia Society