Witch Hazels spidery blooms are another welcome sight in winter. Helen Chesnut
Pink Dawn viburnum flower clusters are often found encrusted with ice or snow in Februarys unpredictable weather. Helen Chesnut
This seed-grown Pink Silk rock rose (Cistus) is a low, compact, dense bush with frilly-edged pink flowers. Helen Chesnut
Lady Di is a superb runner bean, tender and sweet. Helen Chesnut Since all my socializing for months has been outdoors, much of it occurs in the garden. One friend in particular has been generous in coming to garden with me once every week through most of the mild fall and winter, at least until last week, when a surprise period of freezing weather arrived, crusting over the soil and causing a large front garden patch of blue borage and orange calendula to collapse in a sad heap.
The company was the first to list my now favourite beet, a cylindrical type called Taunus. It’s still the only company I know of offering Siderno, my best tasting and earliest patio tomato, just 45 centimetres high, that I grow in pots every summer. Along with potted tomatoes, I grow mini-hedges of compact, small-leaved basil in windowbox style planters on the patio. Pluto is one of the best, good also for indoor winter pots. Pluto is one of the best dwarf, small-leaved basil varieties. The plants often do not start forming flowers until late in the summer. HELEN CHESNUT I’ll be growing more of Dropshot, a ferny-leaved Mexican marigold (licorice marigold) that was the source of much sweet snacking in the garden last summer. And I’ll be trying a pink onion called Blush.
Carrots under row covers or insect netting grow undamaged by rust fly larvae. These carrots over-wintered in the garden and were harvested in late February. Helen Chesnut
This seeded bed of mainly carrots and beets has a floating row fabric arranged over it, with enough slack left in the fabric to allow for the plantings top growth. Helen Chesnut
Epimedium flower stems begin emerging this month. Before they do, removing the old foliage, which can hide some of the bloom, makes way for a better floral display. Helen Chesnut In our coastal climate, February can be a tricky, undependable month. The forecasts I’ve seen don’t indicate any super-nasty weather, just a few light frosts overnight. Let’s hope that means a decent number of useable outdoor days to ready the garden for the upcoming spring growing season.
Then, with February, came snow, freezing temperatures and the impossibility of accomplishing anything useful in gardens. It wasn’t until mid-March that the soil thawed and the snow melted where I live, though not all parts of the Island or even Greater Victoria were similarly affected. Perhaps February this year will be mild enough for an early start to the growing season. All being well, I’ll soon be preparing plots for early seedings of broad beans, peas, carrots and hardy green leafy vegetables like spinach, corn salad, mizuna and chrysanthemum greens (shungiku, chop suey greens). Indoors, some of the seed catalogues remain to be scoured through and inspired by. Here is one of my favourites.
My son and I do minimal gift-giving at Christmas. I give almost exclusively edible treats and vitamins. Chris usually comes up with something simple but wonderfully thoughtful, like a box of LED . . .