February - and the garden gets going

It's been an eventful past 6 months.  What with family emergencies, urgent business and some illness thrown into the mix, the garden has gotten short shrift.  However, hopefully now things are going to get a little more manageable!

Today I set aside some time to start seeding for this year's garden.  Four 6" pots were seeded with leeks and onions.  This year, I'm trying another leek in addition to my trusty Bandit which holds through the winter so well and is just now finally getting past its prime.  Chinook F1 is the variety I selected especially for summer, fall harvesting and there were only 25 seeds in the package!  I only found it on West Coast Seeds' website - not even in this year's catalogue.  Since I'm growing 2 varieties, I only seeded half the amount of Bandits I usually do.

A full package of Copra onions were seeded in 2 pots.  Last year's onions were outstanding, the biggest I've ever grown and I only lost 2 plants.  Copra is the only onion I grow as it's an excellent keeper and stores extremely well in addition to having great flavour.  Last year I just had to buy about half a dozen when I ran out of my own.

Pots of onion and leek seeds in the house under lights

I brought the pots back into the house and settled them in my lighted tray under a window.  Once they've sprouted, they'll be moved out to the unheated potting shed.

Siberia Kale doing well in the garden

This winter has been quite mild.  We've only had one decent snowfall and one good cold snap.  This doesn't augur well for bugs!  And things are budding very early.

Crocuses peeking out of dead iris foliage

Crocuses are up and wide open when the sun shines (it wasn't today) and narcissi are almost open.  The King Edward currant bush has flowers starting to extend from the buds so we could have an early influx of hummingbirds.

Fuchsia coming back to life

By the pond I found a forgotten planter with a fuchsia plant in it.  I'd assumed it was an annual, but there is green growth on it, so I whisked it into the potting shed to protect it from the cold - it is only February after all!

In a couple of weeks it will be the turn of the tomatoes to get seeded.  The garden never waits!