It's February.. so where's the snow?

Today is the first day of February and typically should be one of the coldest time of the year. Instead we had balmy 56 degree weather. So where's the snow? I know I shouldn't be griping about it but my garden needs that wet snow so the plants can rest and roots can grow stronger and instead my plants are very confused now - crocuses and hyacinths starting to go into bloom. What worries me is that whenever we have 'soft' winter it usually tends to be followed by harsh spring. And we already had cold and wet spring last year so this year it would be nice to have normal spring season. Well, I guess we'll wait and see how it goes.

In the meanwhile, I did inventory of my seed collection and outlined what I'm planning to plant this year. For spring "cold" season I have: various salads - both head and loose types, cabbage, broccoli, bok choy, radishes, peas, swiss chard, spinach, arugula and collard greens. These will be planted this weekend in seedling containers - except for the arugula, radishes and peas as they grow super fast and do better if planted directly into the ground which I will do closer to the end of March.

After my cold-season seedlings are transplanted I will start my warm-loving ones. And for these I really look forward to seeing new varieties. I will try planting new melons, peppers, and squashes that i did not try before, but most of all I will plant all new varieties of my tomatoes. I got quite a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes and can't wait to see how they'll taste. Normally I use Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Black Krim because these are my favorites, but this year I have at least a dozen new to try as well. Black Pineapple sounds good and looks fabulous on pictures so can't wait to get it started :)

And then of course my 'staples' of the garden - green and yellow wax beans, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, summer squash, eggplant, beets and herbs that will be planted as well. Garlic cloves were already planted in October so we should have it ready to pick in July.

In addition to the veggies I will have my fruit as well - strawberries that I had last year and I ordered two new varieties that will come in April. We also have blueberries, raspberries, grapes, blackberries, two cherry trees that should be full in bloom this year, peach and nectarine, plums and apple trees. I know we'll have plums because we had one this year but not sure about apples just yet. I hope to try at least one soon. Can we fast forward to spring now?

So what's happening at your garden? anyone getting ready for the new season?