Today is February 28, not quite the end of the month as it is a leap year. This winter has had a bit of everything. Unseasonably warm weather, with the grass making some unexpected appearances, snowstorms, ice storms, lots of rain, a few very deep freezes. I drove to Guelph Ontario a few weeks ago to watch my daughter's orchestra perform, and was dismayed to see the Canada geese already flying overhead heading north. A few days later, the temperature plummeted, so I am wondering how they are faring. I also saw crocuses popping up. This is not supposed to happen in early February. This week we had an ice storm which fortunately did not last more than a day. It was miserable weather which has left many trees with branches torn off, but by the next morning most of the ice had melted which was fortunate. There was enough time for the water to drain off the streets before the next big freeze. Today it is snowing, and for a change looks like it is supposed to outside.
I have been growing violets (or pansies, I am still not sure of the difference) on the sides of my front stoop. A few years back, my neighbours removed their chimney and we took the metal insert, cut it into pieces, painted the pieces and use them as planters in the fronts of our houses. One set is taller than the other, so I have them as a two step decorative planter going along the front steps. In the top ones I put the violets, in the bottom, nasturtiums. They both seem to tolerate the amount of light they get, and the violets are protected from the voracious slugs that ate them when I tried them anywhere else in the garden. Generally the nasturtiums go to seed and replenish themselves from year to year, but the violets don't so I have taken to buying them in flats from Walmart as they are cheap and easy. This year, we had a relatively early frost that destroyed my tomatoes long before I was ready to call it quits. After the first two times we had frost, the remaining weeks in the fall were unusually mild, so whatever was not tropical or delicate kept on growing and blooming. The winners for the most resilience, that continued right through December was a sun-deprived sunflower which kept on trying to have its day in the sun, one I did not plant but popped up beneath my spruce tree, thanks to a squirrel most likely. It never managed to open the bud before winter finally took it. The biggest surprise was the violets.
I had a pot of freesias which my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago which was completely out of sync with the seasons. It came up mid-summer, and did not flower by the time the temperature dropped. For a couple of years I took the pot inside hoping it would flower, but no such luck. It would wither up and die, then come back again mid to late summer. Last year I decided to give up on it, and left it outside next to my stairs over winter. This year, late in the summer, something else started to grow that did not look like the freesias. It looked familiar but I was not sure what it was. As it was not harming anyone, I let it do its thing. By early fall, the plants started to bloom and I realized they were violets. The pot was directly below the violet pot, so seeds must have fallen. I moved the pot to the top of the stairs next to my front door. At this point the rest of the flowers were dying off, so I decided to enjoy the late bloomers.
What amazed me was they survived the frosts, and kept on flowering. We had snow, the plants were buried for a week or so, then a thaw. Lo and behold, the violets sprang back up and continued to flower right into January. Eventually we had a deep freeze and more snow, and when it rained last week, I could see the violets again, they were quite flattened but their yellow flowers were still intact. I am curious to see what they do when the real spring starts.
I received a package of Jasmyn and Gu's garlic, which is sitting in my laundry room until I decide what to do. Plant indoors and see what happens? Plant outdoors in spring? Eat some decent garlic because I am so disappointed with the crap that is commercially available? They are much smaller than the ones they grew last year, or perhaps the small ones are the ones left this late in the year. Last I discussed gardening with Gu, he was getting rather frustrated with the amount of work it took to run a commercial organic garlic farm and was shifting his energies to teaching music.
I have been very fortunate to have picked up a teaching contract this winter, not full time, but there have been enough replacements that some weeks it has been more than full time, and other weeks I have time to spend with my parents who have been going through some rough times. I have not had much time to blog, nor much to write about yet. I have not planned out my garden, besides of course where to plant the garlic from last year. The fact that I am teaching and do not have a second part time (year round) job means that I will have the summer off and have time to garden (yay!)
I am planning to plant the tomatoes indoors earlier this year to maximize my crop. Will blog again once I have gotten started. Until then, hang in there. Winter is more than halfway over!
