Breaking winter this weekend is supposed to get toward 60 degrees Sunday, and I am thinking of spring. Then looked at the forecast for next week, back down to 30 degrees. I guess spring will wait. But here are some things you can do while you wait.
Sitting in the recliner with gardening catalogs coming out now and with a cup of tea is a time-honored winter activity for gardeners. There, you can peruse the hundreds of new veggie and plant varieties for the 2020 growing season. With a few catalogs at the ready, winter becomes a time for dreaming and hoping.
Grab a pencil and paper and actually draw a bird’s-eye view of your garden. You can mark where plants are currently located and where you want to put new varieties. It’s a great exercise for the creatively minded.
There are plenty of houseplants that can provide you with color and texture right now. Some easy specimens include geraniums, crown of the thorns (Euphorbia milii), begonias, streptocarpus, cyclamen, African violets, and countless types of cacti and succulents. My begonias I brought in October have been blooming since coming inside.
Maybe not the most exciting job, but a necessary one. Keep your shovels, forks, clippers, and trowels in shape by making sure they’re clean and any moving parts are well-oiled. This year I am buying bright-orange spray paint and paint the handles. That way, when you’re working outside and lay a tool on the ground, you’ll be able to find it in a jiffy, instead of waiting till the snow melts to find that shovel.