starting seeds

I beg to differ with T.S. Eliot, who wrote “April is the cruellest month.”  For me, hands down, it’s got to be February. Closer to spring – yet so far away.

Here in western New York, we had a thaw, only to be dumped on again by a blizzard. I’m looking out the window at the dangling, empty Miami Dolphins birdhouse my husband proudly put up after Christmas (gag). I should’ve put the birdfeeder from my dad out during the thaw to attract some new feathered friends, just like my precocious preschooler demanded.

So again, I turn to the catalogs for solace, drooling over the new euphorbia, Ascot Rainbow…sigh…

But! The days are getting longer, the sun getting higher. And I can start some veggie seeds with my daughter.

Or, as Dave Epstein suggests in his February Gardener’s Calendar, I can walk around the yard and check for branches weighed down by heaving, drifting banks. If I find any, he advises, I should resist the urge to lift them – or they could break. I’ll just have to let them come back up naturally on their own.

According to Epstein, I can also go around and check for winter damage, spray deer repellant or antidessicant like Wilt-Pruf or tie up shrubs to keep them out of banks….

OK, so I realistically won’t get around to any of that. If it’s cold, I’m staying in and starting seeds with my daughter. But is seed-starting “easy-care gardening?” you ask. Hmmm. I s’pose not, if you count the time it took me to drive me to drive to Home Depot (I had to go there for a curtain rod anyway) and buy the shop light, seeds and Burpee seed starting kit. But I consider this more of a “quality of life” activity – the kind of thing you can do with your kid or grandkid instead of letting them veg out in front of another Barney video. And hey, it’s cheaper than therapy, I say. Maybe the grow lights will help my Seasonal Affective Disorder, or whatever fancy name they give to the February Grumpies.

As daylight lengthens and intensifies, my daughter and I will also be moving plants that don’t like a lot of light from south facing windows (where we put them in winter’ shortest days) back to east- or west-facing ones.

Those living in warmer climates, (Zones 8 and up), however, might want to check out the regional gardening chores for February from About.com gardening guide Marie Iannotti.

As for me, it’s back to my garden catalogs - checking out all the new plants for 2010. So tell me, what plants are you pining for these days? Leave a comment and let me know!