February 2009 - Searching for Signs of Spring

As I sit by the window penning these words, the morning sun glints off the gently rolling surf, which casts a faint salty tang to the air. The tropical breeze carries a melody of song, orchestrated by a small flock of bright, multi-colored birds playing tag throughout the perfumed grove of majestic hibiscus.

"What an incredibly beautiful planet to share," I muse, taking in not only the lush and vibrant scene, but the scented air, the soft warm breeze, and the musical lilt of humming insects and darting birds. My serene reverie is interrupted by a loud THUD against the house, and I am jerked back to reality.

A quick glance outside shows that the wind has picked up and it's snowing again. Instead of beachwear, I'm clad in an oversized flannel shirt and turtleneck which accompany the jeans and two pairs of socks donned early that morning, to stave off the below-freezing temperature promised by the weatherman. It's February, month of groundhogs and Valentine's Day cards, the shortest month of the year, but one of the most difficult to endure . . . especially if you are a gardener.

February taunts green-thumbed folks, granting an occasional glimpse of spring delights ahead, with a few hours or maybe even a whole day of blue sky, tolerable temperatures and that fantastic, mushroomy, earthy smell of the soil slowly coming alive again. At such an opportunity, any passionate gardener will interrupt the task at hand to venture out and take stock before the dreary cold gray winter pulls back the curtain once again.

Let's peek under the mulch in the herb bed first to see if new growth is present on perennials such as St. Johns Wort, marshmallow, hyssop, costmary, and echinacea. Look how tempting the grayed and withered leaves and bare stems of the sage, thyme and lavender are -- my fingers itch to grab the pruning shears hanging by the back door, to snip and pinch to tidy up but, no, I must wait. The seemingly dead stems of Mediterranean herbs often bring forth new leaves and shoots with the sun's stronger warmth in mid-May.

Sauntering farther along, a crowd of crocus blooms at toe-height, competing only with the stunted dandelion for the honeybees' attention. The bees, too, seem happy to leave their winter sanctuary and enjoy the brief respite under the blue sky and warming air. And look over there! Daffodils and hyacinths have begun shouldering their way through the soil, promising a show of scent and color in the coming weeks.

The strawberry plants set in and mulched last fall still display their bedraggled long-stemmed leaves, but do you see the tiny new green specks at the crowns? Those will branch up and out in their own time to produce a multitude of pretty white flowers and hopefully, delicious red fruit. Time to start thinking about beating the slugs to the berries, eh? Shall we check out the grape arbor? Remember to prune the grapevines around February 15th -- the optimal pruning time for grapes in this region. And if I take 12" long cuttings from the pruned vines and plant them a couple of inches deep in the soil, they'll root and this time NEXT year, the new grapevines will need pruning mid-month, too.

Oh, look! The forsythia and flowering quince are smothered in fat flower buds, just waiting for an excuse to bloom. The apple, peach, cherry and pear trees also display swollen buds, a sign of good things to come. NOW I'll go grab the pruning shears and bring in an armful of branches for weeks of indoor bloom. It's easy. Just cut what might need pruning anyway, damaged branches, stems that cross or rub, very tightly angled branches, or just a few individual side stems. Fill vases with room temperature water and recut the stem at a sharp angle, or mash the stem ends to encourage water uptake. Keep out of direct sun and in a cool spot until blooming begins, then display and enjoy. Don't limit yourself -- almost any early spring-blooming tree or shrub can be forced into bloom to get through the gloom! Here, let me cut a few stems from the barberry bush. They probably won't bloom indoors since they flower later in spring, but the foliage will add texture to the vase.

Stay out of the vegetable garden! The soil is still too wet. Your weight will cause soil compaction, one of the most difficult problems to correct in the garden. When a handful of soil is squeezed into a ball and stays that way, it's too wet to work. If the ball falls apart when you open your fist, the soil is workable. All the same, I avoid walking near any root zone when I can. From here on the sidelines, we can see the winter onions and garlic, standing green and tall, no sign yet of critter damage. Now may be the time to think about solutions to deer, rabbit and groundhog pressure, based on last year's experience.

Did you notice the multiflora rose also showing signs of new life? Snip it all off at ground level. Keep doing that through the entire growing season to weaken and eventually kill the shrub. Cutting the top growth completely prevents photosynthesis which, in turn, starves the roots and destroys the life of the plant. No poisoning or pulling from the ground needed!

It's close to maple syrup time, too. Time to check the inventory of equipment needed. A string of days with temperatures near 50 and lows at night below freezing means the sap will be running. Remember the south side of the tree will run first, north side last. Did you know trees actually have a vascular system which pumps the sap, not unlike the human vascular system? The sap run is more detailed than just heat equals expansion and cold equals contraction. One year we started with a ten day sap run in February, followed by two weeks of cold and snow, and finished with the blessing of another ten day run in March. Now THAT'S pure, sweet satisfaction.

We have just enough time to check the compost pile. Aah, it's steaming! Grab that pitchfork, let's get some aerobic exercise before we go in. Fork it over and pile it up, bigger chunks on the bottom and in the middle, to help maintain aeration. My goodness, the pile is two-thirds smaller than when it was constructed late last summer. Look at all the worms toward the outside edges where it's moist and cooler. The bulk of material has broken down; I can't recognize most of the ingredients except some of the fibrous cornstalk remnants and eggshells. Looks like the compost will be ready for the garden right on time.

Brrrrr... It's gotten cold again, and the sky is dark. How about heading in for a cup of tea? We can browse seed catalogues one more time to see what else we might want to plant this year.