Spring Fever

Here it is… mid-February and the sun is shining.  This is the time that all the neighbor gardeners stop by and we all look at each other with twitchy, bulgy eyes… “how’s the fever?”   Spring fever, that is.

Portland has a regular pattern that involves a couple of months (Dec. – Jan.) of intolerably bad, rainy, cold, frozen weather and then this typical sadistic warm-up in February.  The sun comes out, temps stay mostly above freezing, stuff starts to sprout… it’s time to go to the nursery!

No.  It’s not.  We WILL have another nasty cold spell.  Average last frost date is something like mid-April here.  That’s nearly two months off.  Planting anything that can’t take a frost is just dumb, and yet… the nursery is packed on these days.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been planting.  I’ve put in peas, both eating and sweet.  I’ve also started several flats of seeds in the greenhouse.  We shall see if that structure can serve as a rational outlet for my need to plant stuff.  Allow me to state right now that I’ve been very bad about sterilizing my flats… so if every last thing damps off, it’s my fault.

What’s up in the yard?  Buds are swelling on the fruit trees (all pruned by now and sprayed with lime sulfur).  No sign of the hostas yet.  The heather looks nice.  Lots of bulbs coming up.  This is the time that I wish I’d planted a lot more of them.  Hey!  Future me!  Plant more bulbs!  Don’t be so cheap!

Peonies are sticking their little red thumbs out of the soil.  The hardy kiwi male, elderberries, and fruiting honeysuckle have actually started to leaf out already.  Mostly, though, the plants know better and are keeping their heads down.