58 March 1, 2008

The month of March. In New England, it can be a big tease. Warm days followed by cold days. Snowy days followed by spring weather. Yet, we still can’t get out into the garden to do too much gardening. Let’s find something to do to wait out old man winter.

Go find your pruning shears. Go outside to your forsythia bushes. Cut off a few tips of the branches. Bring those branches into your home and put them into a vase filled with water. In a week or so, you will have forsythia blooming in your home.

You can still find paper white bulbs in garden centers. You can start some of these bulbs and in about 4 weeks or less have flowers in bloom in your home.

Primrose plants are now available in stores. The soft fragrance of these flowers will definitely make you think about spring. Just make sure that you keep the soil moist if you want the flowers to last a long time. Once spring finally arrives, you can plant your primrose in a shady area of your garden.

Go seed packet shopping. Most of the stores have their seed packets in stock now. You know that you want some varieties of seeds that may be hard to find later in the season. If you buy them now, you will have them come planting time. Buying seeds now may also give you the incentive to try something new in your garden. Gardening should be about trying new things. How did you find favorite things for your garden if, at one time, you didn’t try something new?

While you are looking at the seed packages, why not buy some seeds that you can start indoors now. You could start a few herbs and grow them on a windowsill. Start some geraniums from seed. They do take a long time to grow, but at this point of the season, you have time on your side. Come spring, you’ll have a tried and true flower that will do well in those sunny and hot areas of your garden.

Think spring. It will be here sooner than we think. Give or take about 4 weeks and we will all be getting dirt under our fingernails.

I’ll talk to you again next week.