February Garden Chores: A Short and Fun List
Plan Your Garden
Buy Seeds
Winter Sowing
Get Your Gear Together
Monitor Your Houseplants
Take Inventory
Take a Class
https://northerngardener.org/february-garden-chores-a-short-and-fun-list/
Plan for at least one future crop of something that you and your family consume
as an experiment
Don't be complacent with what you know and have had success with
Grow a little bit .. and ask questions .
Good morning! Happy February!
Our January thaw finally happened yesterday! The snow has finally melted almost everywhere. I hear we should get into the 50’s and maybe 60’s tomorrow and Monday! I’m looking forward to not being so bundled up.
February brought a nice warm-up to Central Missouri. We had temps in the 60°s over the weekend. The frost is coming out of the ground and everything is a sloppy mess. I expect we’ll get at least one more round of frigid temps that will lock everything back up before the month is out.
I didn’t do anything with the gardens over the weekend, but I’m making a list of things that need to be done before good weather gets here. After all of the cortisone shots and PT over the past year my body is feeling very good so I’m looking forward to the gardening season with optimism rather than with dread.
Plumber guy has been tied up with frozen pipe emergencies and hasn’t made it out to install my freeze-proof hydrant. I’ve been able to keep the existing setup from freezing and breaking so my job is on a side burner for the next little while.
Pops had shoulder joint replacement surgery last Friday. He made it through that just fine and is home recuperating. If his recovery goes well the plan is to do the other shoulder in six months.
A potpourri of ‘things’ ....
Snake - something “exciting” to start out. Sunday, mom was putting away Christmas decorations & getting out other items to replace the seasonal decorations. Next thing I knew, she was hysterically calling for me, sounded like from the basement. To make a long story short, as she was getting a wall hanging out of a bin & shaking it out, a 3 foot rat snake fell out. Fortunately, it was deceased and not stinky (yet). It probably got in the basement stairwell, went under the door & into the bin ... top had to be open or cracked open. When the top was closed, Mr. Snake starved to death. Yuck.
Gardening - the extent of my efforts towards a garden this year (so far) have been to purchase 4 packages of zinnia seeds Saturday at the Dollar Store (all 4 for $1.25). Two are giant zinnias, two are Lilliputian size.
Books - Dollar Store ‘finds’. Normally, the books are unknown authors. This time, I found two good ones: Lee Child (Reacher series) & Thomas Harris (wrote Silence of the Lambs). I also found a beautiful cookbook with some very interesting recipes. The books, full price, would have been $79. I paid $3.75. I went back & bought the rest of the cookbooks (3) to give as gifts at some point in the future. The book is Vegan (which I realized when I got it home) and I am definitely not Vegan, but the recipes are very interesting & the desserts are definitely something I want to try.
Aquafaba - a term in the cookbook that I had never seen before. Know what it is without looking it up?
Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven - splurged and bought one at Walmart. It’s ceramic lined, 5.5 quarts & red in color. I love it - perfect size for soups, boiling potatoes & pasta.
Soup - I have been craving split pea with ham soup. Last week I made two batches. I used a ham steak and that was perfect for flavor. Both batches are gone - I gave away about half of one batch to mom & a relative, but I ate the rest. I have the peas & ham steak for another batch, but I think I’ll try another soup for some variety: Smoky Chickpea, Red Lentil & Vegetable soup (recipe is not from the Vegan book).
Red Lentils & Taylors Orange & Lemon Tea - items the 2 food stores around here don’t carry. Being fairly rural, it looks like some things I will have to order from Amazon (coming today - yay!).
Rotisserie chicken - if you are at the store at the right time, the rotisserie chickens (cold) might be on sale - $2.26 a chicken. I got 2 the other day & ended up with 3.5 pounds of meat. You can buy a pound of already ‘pulled’ chicken meat for $9.99 so for about $4.52 & a bit of work, I ended up with $35 worth of chicken meat in the freezer for future use. I’m in “frugal” mode. The coyotes or whatever visits the scrap pile will love the chicken carcasses.
Cabin Fever - I’ve got it. The snow is 99% melted. The ground is very soggy & muddy. Yesterday was cloudy & gloomy, but no precipitation. Tomorrow is colder (high of 35) with a late day/night ‘wintery mix’. Rain Thursday. Maybe sun Friday, then rain again Saturday. This area has had bad drought conditions the last two years - ponds are still pretty much empty. The county has “conserve water” signs up already so I am trying not to complain about the wet weather. There is a Greenway 10 minutes max from the house - I plan on taking some walks as soon as I feel like the plantar fasciitis I got in one foot during the last month of moving is totally resolved (getting close!).
Insomnia - got that, too. If I wake up in the night, I cannot go back to sleep. Tonight, it was 3:30 ... not as bad as 1:30.
Cows - my ‘across the road’ neighbors and a source of entertainment when you have Cabin Fever & a pair of binoculars. The calves are growing - from a distance, they are now looking like mini-cows rather than large dogs. With the weather & snow cover, round bales are spread out every day. The calves all plop down on the hay for a nap while the moms munch. The little guys (& gals) often play together ... looks like a form of ‘tag, you’re it’.
SO ready for Spring!
