Fluffy Snow, Ice, Shrivelled Plants And…. Sowing Seeds?

Just a couple of days ago I had walked around the garden peering closely at the flower beds to see what was happening.  Some of the daffodils had started to sprout, their leaves about 5 inches above ground level.  My late, daisy seedlings were looking strong and fluffy, and in general, besides the dead stalks from the annuals, the flowerbeds showed promise.

Since then everything has been coated in a few inches of soft, fluffy snow, then frost and ice attacked and now I’m sure everything has shrivelled up in protest. 

It was nice to see fluffy snow, though! We don’t usually get lovely, fluffy snow here.  Oh sure we get snow, but usually there’s rainfall right after the snow so everything turns hard and crusty – snow topped with ice.  The fluffy snow recently was really delightful as it lasted for more than a day and really softened the world outside and lent its particular eerie-muffled quality to the sounds all around.

Of course all the plants have been somewhat traumatized, especially my young ones.  But, I’m not worried.  Nature has a way of righting itself and these little guys do need to dig deep and establish themselves in this area.

It is difficult to think of sowing seeds and planning your gardening activities for the year when it’s cold and icy outside.  The incongruity of this necessity always strikes me at this time of winter; it especially did today as I both shivered and sweated during my daily walk. But, I really did need my two, knitted, beanie hats to keep the cold and chill off my head. And yes, I’ll admit, one of these was thin insulate with a fleece interior!  I also needed my two scarves, even though one came from Norway and was made of specially woven wool designed to insulate from the very cold weather.

I’m not usually one for procrastination – that habit was drummed out of me as a  youngster – but I must acknowledge that I do drag my feet at this time of the year.  It’s an important time in the gardening world I know, but for those of us in the very North (with no greenhouses and lots of gales) it is not the easiest thing to go into an uninsulated, stone walled garden shed, root around for potting compost and then figure out where in the house you can both sow the seeds and stash the germination trays for some months.  It gets even more complicated when you come to realize that some seeds need a period of cold temperatures to germinate; so then you have to wonder how cold that particular spot might get in the middle of the night, when the heating is on a low setting. Oh the variables to balance! 

It takes a lot of thinking and mental preparation to sort through all of this, I know!  It is worthwhile, however, to pull on the gloves and get to it.  In my neck of the woods I’m hopeful that, given the germination periods of the seeds I’ve just sown, I’ll have seedlings sprouting in a month and possibly healthy, bushy seedlings by April.  So far I’ve sown Lewisia Coteledyon, Verbascum, Antirrhinum, Bidens Golden Eye and Cleome Fountain Mix.  I’m excited to see them germinate, and am a bit curious about the Lewisia Coteledyon, as this is my finicky seed of this batch!

It’s funny, at this point last year my photos show that I had dwarf daffodils already in full bloom.  This year I have a couple of crocuses struggling to appear and a few leaves shooting up, but otherwise the scene is quite barren!