Three Things I Love About February

As months of the year go, February often gets a bad rap. It is difficult to spell and harder to say (is that extra "r" supposed to be silent or stressed?). And by the time you buy a dozen roses, a half dozen gourmet chocolate covered strawberries, a heart-shaped box of candy, jewelry, and a Hallmark card expressing your enduring love for your significant other, chances are your wallet and your patience will be thinner than Oprah was in the late 1980's. 


Even though it can be expensive, February is still one of my favorite months.  Here are three reasons why:


>Classroom Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in February - as a kid, I used to love to exchange these cards with my classmates and as an adult, I still like to give them out to my friends. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, and often with goodies attached, such as candy, stickers, or tattoos. What type of classroom Valentine's Day card would I like to receive? A garden themed card with a packet of seeds attached would be awesome!

>My birthday is in February - actually, I was born the day before Valentine's Day, so over the years I've received many Valentine's Day themed presents from family and friends. In fact, I have collected so many gifts - hearts, cherubs, bears, and roses just to name a few -  I'll never have to buy another Valentine's decoration, ever.

>February is a short month - there are twenty-eight days in February (twenty-nine when it is a Leap Year), which makes it the shortest month of the year. And once February is over, we transition into March, and March means we are closer to Spring, and Spring means we are closer to getting outside to work in our gardens!

 So, there you have it. Three things I love about February. How about you? What are some of your favorite things about this short but heart-felt month?

The Historic Gardener

Two of my passions in life are researching history and gardening. Consequently, the more time I spend with my nose in a book or digging in the dirt, the happier I am.

For me, studying the past and tending a garden are related activities. For one cannot plant a new garden without incorporating basic techniques practiced in the olden days. And in order to find and employ these methods, a reasonable amount of research must be done. Thus, in my mind, gardeners make excellent historians.

Herb Garden #3

For the past couple of years, I've planted an herb garden, separate from my regular garden. The first year I planted rosemary and basil, herbs that are familiar to most gardeners. The second year, I successfully added lavender, stevia, cilantro, and sage to the mix.

This year, if I can find them and if they'll grown in my planting zone, I'd like to add the following herbs to garden #3:

>Tansy - also called bitter buttons or golden buttons. Can be used for medicinal purposes as well as culinary purposes. It is also used as an insect repellent.

>Dill - commonly used when making pickles and to flavor soups.

>Catnip - repels certain bugs in the garden, but attracts butterflies. Is also used to make tea and poultices.

>Peppermint - used to flavor candy, and for tea.

>Coriander - leaves, seeds, and roots are used for flavoring food.

What herbs do you plan to grow in your garden this year? 

The Garden: Beauty Versus Usefulness

Several years ago, I had one of those fancy side-by-side refrigerators with a water and ice dispenser located on the outside of the door. It was big, the doors were smudge-proof, and I could fit a ton of stuff inside. As refrigerators go, it was top-tier.

One morning, I walked into the kitchen to find a stream of water silently flowing from the water dispenser and puddling on the floor. After checking to make sure the doors were closed and all of the buttons were in the "off" position, I pulled the refrigerator away from the wall, turned off the corresponding spigot, and unhooked the water supply line. And although I continued to use the refrigerator without any further problems, it gave me no aesthetic pleasure as it had before.

Now, if you subscribe to the notion that beauty is at best a fleeting quality, and usefulness a necessity, you may appreciate the similarities I've found between my broken refrigerator and a garden.

In the beginning, a newly planted garden, like a newly purchased appliance, is attractive and well-ordered. The plants are green, the rows are uniform, and the weeds are barely, if at all, visible. Butterflies visit regularly and nature's critters observe the goings-on from a distance. But, as Spring turns to Summer, the plants get bigger, their foliage gets a little yellow or brown, perfect rows become muddled, and for every weed you pull, two more appear. To make matters worse, a plethora of bugs, some identifiable and some not, join the butterflies, and an assortment of nasty little varmints move in and declare war on anything they can stuff into their furry faces. 

Even so, all is not lost. Although our gardens may no longer look perfect, like my refrigerator, they still  work. Our plants are growing and producing, we're helping the environment, and we're saving money. So cheer up. Gardens don't have to be beautiful to be successful.

 

Release Your Creativity

To touch it or not to touch it? That was the question. Conflicted in my creative persona, I stood in front of the interactive museum exhibit, gaping. Mouth closed of course, but gaping nonetheless. Comprised of at least a thousand round, uniformed lights in shades of blue, red, green, and purple on a black background, the display took up over half of the wall space it was attached to and resembled a Lite-Brite toy I used to have as a kid.

Bathed in the brilliance of it's glow, I glanced left, then right and moved in a little closer. Slowly, I reached out my hand and touched a blue light, which in turn remained blue. Refusing to be detoured, I turned the blue lamp half an inch to the right and poof! The coloration changed from dark blue to light blue. Without hesitation, I began rotating lights this way and that, constructing my own pattern on the board until my vision was complete.

The takeaway? Whether you're working in the garden, writing a blog post, or constructing a masterpiece with your own hands, don't curb your creativity. Instead, let your light shine!