Early chores

Some of you are looking out at a brown and wintry landscape, but here in Seattle the garden chores are popping up like mushrooms on the lawn. It isn't warm or sunny, but the temperature is oh-so-slowly creeping toward 50 and finally the days are noticeably longer. Roses are budding and should be pruned now. All sorts of yard cleanup needs to be done after a soggy, mossy winter. February is a good month to think and poke around outside. Most people need warm weather to get motivated (who can blame them?) but it's a short window in spring for influencing Mother Nature, which will soon take her course.

The Goodwill always has interesting, cheap baskets for growing succulents. The shallow ones work best lined with coir fiber and a small amount of potting soil. Succulents aren't fussy but it's a picky job to divide them on a cold day. By summer whatever container you used will be filled out, and they look good on outdoor tables and tucked in flower beds. The baskets rot away in a year or two, but it doesn't matter since they need to be re-potted then anyway. It's a way to recycle and make something pretty for practically nothing.