What's on your Gardening Mind this week?

An opportunity to ask me anything

It’s that time again.

January was as long as January always is, but now here we are, firmly into February. According to which hashtags you follow, we’ve had #Imbolc #Candlemas #Groundhog Day and we’re filled with hope and optimism and the beginning of Carnival as the ever-lengthening days tempt us with sunlight and breath-holding peeks of buds.

It’s a steady and fine balance, isn’t it, at this time of year?

You love the sight of the buds, but at the same time you WILL them to hold on for a bit, remembering the heavy snowfall that dumped itself on similar enthusiastic buds on this day a couple of years ago. We want colour, but we want the flowers to live too. So patience, however boring, is this month’s watchword. I like to counter patience with a continued celebration of hibernation - I’m not quite ready to emerge completely quite yet, whatever Punxsutawney Phil has to say about it.

This groundhog doesn’t look very convinced about its weather forecast. Photo by Camerauthor Photos

I’d love to know how you treat February.

That, of course, is going to partly depend on which hemisphere you’re currently in. One of the complete joys of this community here on The Gardening Mind is that it’s made up of people from both hemispheres, and so it’s exciting to see that Pip and Hugo, who have recently begun creating a 5-acre organic food and flower garden in Central Victoria, Australia, are documenting their story here on Substack. Not quite from the Southern Hemisphere, for a jolly February event from Italy, do join me this