February Gardening

Ahhh... cilantro.

This might be my favorite month for gardening.  The weather is nice and cool, there's regular rain, and we're on the cusp of two seasons so a lot of diversity is possible.  And it's just a pleasure to be out there.

This weekend we bravely planted two little tomato plants in the hopes that hard freezes are behind us. We also planted some more lettuce and replenished our chicken-tattered strawberry plants and frost-bitten broccoli.  In real-world food production where we relied on these plants as our primary source of food for our family, it would probably be more productive to remove the damaged plants and replace with the new.  But it will be interesting to see how the old ones will recover in comparison to the new ones reaching maturity.  So we'll enjoy the luxury of using the garden for education as well as food.

And for happiness.  It is truly fun to be out on the garden on a beautiful day.  Robins and sandhill cranes are in the neighborhood for a while and people are out strolling, cycling, and jogging.  It's so pleasant.  And little Riley's two year-old tendency not to distinguish work from play is contagious.  Here's a Riley "tutorial" on the use of worm castings in the garden. 

   

1. Dig a hole.  2. Take a tablespoon or two of castings from the bucket.  3. Pause to appreciate how much easier this is than shoveling horse manure.  4. Place castings in hole before adding plant.

I started using worm castings in the school gardens I managed for several years.  The school children even raised their own worms, feeding them apple cores and other healthy snack leavings as well as school garden debris.  We got ours from the worm man, but I think we'll ressurect the worm composter once the puppy settles down.

In addition to placing the castings in the holes before planting, we also sprinkle it around the top mid-season and water it in.  That and a seasonal distribution of finished kitchen compost seems to be all our garden needs to thrive.  This year we are adding soiled hay from the little hen house, and I'm interested to see if that will make it even more productive. 

February garden plant inventory:  Collards (planted in the fall and still thriving), cilantro, sorrel, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes.  What's in your garden this time of year?