“….here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years.”
Wordsworth Tintern Abbey
It’s easy to think of February as the lowest point in the winter or even the whole year. It is certainly a month I associate mostly with endurance.
But there are some compensations to this second last month of winter. February is a mercifully short month. And in February it is obvious that the days are getting longer.
The sun is finally coming over the trees before nine in the morning.
My first sign of spring is the little green shoots inside the garlic. Even in the dark pantry, the garlic knows that spring is coming.
The indoor forest is starting to grow again and the Christmas cacti are finally flowering. I remember reading somewhere that Christmas cactus could be pruned after it blooms. Pruned? It had never occurred to me until this year that I might need to do this. My oldest one, bought as a rooted cutting in a soup can at a church rummage sale, is now more than two feet across. How many decades ago was that? I don’t like to think really. Maybe a modest trim is in order. I wouldn’t want to discourage it by cutting off too much.
Around this time of year I start to expect my first seed orders. Some keen friends I know have already received theirs.
This year I ordered more dahlias in several colours. I’m hoping that I have stored last year’s properly and that I will have those as well as the new ones.
I also ordered a mixture of red and white tall glads. I love these and they are definitely in the category of go big or go home. Grow the small, tasteful species glads if you must but I prefer the big loud ones.
I am picturing a riotous cutting garden with both dahlias and tall glads. Oh and maybe some of those giant African marigolds. Fortunately there is no prohibition here about orange and yellow growing next to red and pink. Every colour is welcome in a cottage garden.
January brought us a lot of extreme weather both in terms of cold and a huge amount of snow. It has been years since I have had to shovel paths everywhere outside. I have done a lot of shovelling this year just to be able to get to the woodshed, garage and composters in the garden.
The most junior of the resident cats will appreciate the composters being accessible again. He likes to sun himself on top of the flat one. And I think he must hear the mice that are living inside safely beyond his reach.
According to my garden journal, the first bulbs were up on the warm west side of the house last year on the tenth of March. The year before it was March the fifth. I take some comfort in this in my count down to spring.
By Jill Williams
