Winterless Winter

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Today’s front page of The Washington Post was graced with a photo of cherry trees, in full bloom, along Connecticut Avenue. Temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s this month, and save for a snow squall that lasted all of ten minutes last week, it has been a mostly winterless winter. At the close of January, I have my hopes set high for a February that brings snow, and lots of it.

When crocus and daffodils start breaking soil in January, I think to myself, “Hold on you guys, not yet!” The cold switch will eventually get turned back on, and they won’t make it to see spring. The unseasonable warmth seems to throw everything off kilter.

I do not like warm winters. It just doesn’t feel right to go hurtling straight from fall to spring without a good shot of the cold that is normal for this part the world at this time of year. Doesn’t everything need a rest? Time to slow down and regain strength? Isn’t it good for the ground to lie still now, for all that we expect it to produce next summer? And, isn’t it good for people too, to embrace the season’s slower pace?

Don’t get me wrong, I like an occasional, unseasonably warm winter day here and there. They open up the senses and lift our collective spirits. But winter deserves its time too, and winter should feel like winter. I am ready for it, with hopes held high.

Ruby Moons

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

It seems that every time I go into a garden store, I cannot leave with just the sole item that drew me in the first place. This weekend's visit to the American Plant Food Company -- my first visit of the year -- was no exception.

I was in the hunt for bok choy seeds. Bok choy is a cool weather vegetable and I know I will have to plant the seeds early.

The problem (or rather, the guilty pleasure) with seed shopping is that I can't do it with blinders on. In my search for bok choy, I was pleasantly distracted by beans, borage, beets, and bachelor buttons. All the possibilities!

Inevitably, I walked away with a few extra selections: lobelia, romaine lettuce, and my favorite find of all -- Ruby Moon hyacinth beans. If I get these to grow, I will post a picture and you will see why I am so excited about these lovely legumes. Their pink, orchid-like flowers give way to shiny, deep purple pea pods. They are something exotic.

Michael and I saw these when we were in Gorham, New Hampshire last summer. They were growing on a trellis in a roadside cottage garden near the local tourist shops that sell all things moose-related. Had we not played tourists pondering the cuteness of kitschy moose paraphernalia, we never would have discovered these beans. We thought they would make a unique addition to our own garden, if ever we could find the seeds.

So now they are part of my seed stash, waiting for their time to come. But first, of course, the cool season vegetables. I did also find bok choy.

The Beginning

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Let the gardening season begin!

The Christmas tree is down now, so it is time to order seeds and set up the seedling center by the windowsill. Two years ago, I never would have imagined that gardening begins in January, but it does. For those of us who take delight in receiving seed catalogs on the coldest days of winter, gardening is a year-round activity. If we aren't digging in the dirt, we are hungering through the catalogs and planning what comes next.

I, along with my husband, Michael, have a small garden plot located a few blocks from our apartment in Washington, D.C. It is a community garden with about 195 members. This will be our third season there. And here, I will tell our story -- our adventures and observations while gardening in the city. Calendula and concrete...

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