February Garden News

I know it sounds nutty to talk gardens in the middle of winter, but my thoughts are definitely on this year’s vegetable and flower gardens. It might be snowing and blowing outside, but in here things are warm, sunny and blooming—at least in my mind!

The Burpee seed order has arrived, and I am psyched to get this gardening show on the road. In another week or so I’ll trek out to the greenhouse and retrieve a stack or two of black plastic six-pack planting cells as well as the trays and covers that go with them. I bought little rounds of growing material which, when dropped into the planting cells and watered, expand to fill each cell with planting medium. I’ll start some seeds (peppers, eggplants and tomatoes) in the family room beside the wood stove, just so they get an extra boost from the heat. By March they’ll be out in the greenhouse and by April I’ll be planting seeds that don’t take long from germination to seedling (annual flowers, cukes, winter squash, melons and a few others) right out in the greenhouse. The racks in my little house will be full, and every ray of sunshine will go to good use.

I love this time of year! We grow most of our own produce—and I mean for year-round use. I can and freeze what we don’t use fresh during the summer months, and we eat homegrown fruits and veggies even during the cold winter months. What’s not to love about that?

Last night we had salmon (not homegrown), roasted broccoli, garlic mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini. All the veggies came from last summer’s gardens. For dessert we had gingerbread with berry sorbet. The gingerbread was not homegrown, obviously, although it was homemade. The berry sorbet used berries from our own backyard, and tasted so sweet it wasn’t hard to remember the warm, sultry days of summer.

So, what about you? Any gardening plans? If you’ve got any gardening questions, shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to lend a hand, if I can. I love the idea of growing our own food, and I’d love to see others get into the groove of gardening.

Just a thought…When I hold a potato grown in our backyard, I never wonder who handled it last or what kinds of pesticides and fertilizers were used in its production. That’s something I don’t know when I stroll through the grocery’s produce aisle.