Schoolhouse Rocks: February 2013

I am looking at my handy dandy Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook. I bought it because it said it was good for all gardeners, no matter which zone you live in. I don’t know about you other Zone 6-ers (and less) out there, but it breaks my heart to read things like: sow peas in February, as soon as soil can be worked.

by Ron Kujawski and Jennifer Kujawski

This book is lovely. It organizes chores so many weeks before average date of last frost, or so many weeks after average date of last frost. So, around here the average frost free date being April 21, then 14-10 weeks before last frost is about right now, and that, my friends, is good news at Schoolhouse Rocks.

I am overeager, you see, and every year I get my seed trays lined up on the dining room window sill on or about the day after Christmas. By the time the weather has warmed enough to put the tomatoes out, they’ve grown so weak and leggy that they keel over the minute they tell me they’re hardened off.

Last year I vowed to be strong, but on February 9, 2012, the daffodils were up 3 centimetres! Leaves were budding on the climbing hydrangea! The crowns of the rudbekia and digitalis were green and the hellebores had been there, done that. My seeds had been started before the end of January.

Then it got cold in March and my tomatoes kicked the bucket as soon as they’d hardened off. The peas were barely worth mentioning.

So this year, fellow gardeners and armchairers, I will be strong! I WENT to Willem Dam Seeds, I GOT the catalogue, and I WALKED OUT without purchasing a thing.

My son was waiting in the car with a paper bag and some smelling salts, just in case.

In fairness, there are some plants – the slow-starters – which could safely be started now. Parsley, for example, is slow to get going, as is thyme. For huge transplants of leek and sweet onions (started from seed), go right ahead. They’ll deal with cooler spring gardens.

But the countdown is definitely on. While I have succumbed to forcing garlic bulbs in the kitchen window for some early greens, the rest of my seeds are staying put until the beginning of March. In the meantime, my Handbook suggests knocking together a cold frame to while away the time, and I just happen to have some old frames stored in the garage for just this kind of emergency.