Deep Winter Blues

So far, it has been a long winter and I'm tired of it. One of the reasons I wanted to move back to Texas was because the winters were so endless and dreary in Northern New Mexico. I was tired of having to stay bundled up in layers of clothes for months on end, and so what happens? The first winter we're back in Texas is one of the coldest on record. Of course. And I've been bundled in layers for weeks and weeks now.

I have packets of seeds waiting to be planted. I want to set up my potting bench and get started. I want to do a raised bed garden in the backyard, and I have the plots all planned and drawn out. I am ready to start buying garden soil and ready to get my hands dirty. I have missed gardening so so much.

When I was a kid working in the yard was drudgery. Punishment. I hated everything about it, and thought my parents were cruel slave-drivers when they made me and my brother do anything out there. All through my twenties I had the same opinion about it. So when did that change?

We had a nursery in the 1980s, my ex and I, and maybe that was when I started to realize how soothing garden work could be. It occupies my body but it quiets my mind. Luckily for me, there's almost always something to do in a garden, even if it's just watering and watching my creations grow. There is a true miracle inside a seed or a bulb. The snowdrops I planted back in October, when the workers were here laying flooring and carpet, when I just needed to get out of their way and out of the noise, those bulbs have already begun to come up, little shoots braving the world like green arrows shooting out of the ground. Probably not this year, but maybe next, they will flower and hopefully spread along the edge of a future planting bed. I put them there with that in mind.

There is something hopeful about gardening, trusting in nature, in the inevitability of a seed or a bulb. I like doing it from scratch, but I also sometimes know when to accept defeat and go to the garden center for 6-packs of ready-made plants. I never have had much luck with growing peppers from seed, but I have three packets and am about to try again. There's the hope I was talking about, that this time I will find success in a prosperous little pepper seed.

I have been collecting egg cartons and grocery store pie containers. The pie containers make great little mini-greenhouses, the ones with the clear plastic lids. Poke a few holes in the bottom pie-shaped part with an ice pick, fill with seedling mix, water, plant a few seeds, put the clear lid on, and voila! Mini-greenhouse. In about 10 days the miracle begins. Egg carton bottoms, especially the Styrofoam kind, make nice cell packs. Use the trusty ice pick again to puncture the bottom of each egg cup, fill with the seedling mix, water, plant two to a cell, and in 10 days or so, voila! It's important to water before you plant so the seed won't wash away. And the seedling mix you can buy almost anywhere is fine enough for baby plants to push through. I have a greenhouse shelf unit I tried to use in the mountains. I never had much luck there, but maybe this spring, in South Texas, I can put it to work.

A Gardener's Edge catalog came in the mail the other day. I have pored over it for days now. There is a backyard greenhouse on the last page that looks exactly like the one I had at the Buffalo Wallow. The price of it is about the same as I paid five years ago, so that's not the issue. But do I want to go through all that assembly again? And here I don't have the concrete pad like I had there to set it on once it's assembled. I think I probably will have a greenhouse again, just maybe not this year. The weather has been abysmal. I believe I've been colder here than I was in 12 degrees with two feet of snow in the mountains. The thought of having to go through 50 pages of assembly instructions to build that greenhouse in a cold back yard makes me shiver.

I don't think a groundhog would have seen his shadow here yesterday. So doesn't that mean winter is nearly over? Or do we have to go by what happened up there in Pennsylvania where Punxsutawney Phil supposedly saw his shadow yesterday? What does Pennsylvania weather have to do with our weather down here? I can't remember what the Groundhog Day rules are, but I do know, I'm ready for Spring. More than ready. My fingernails need dirt under them!!

Grilled Ling and Article Writing

The SO's granddaughter and her boyfriend stopped by here this past Saturday. He is a marine biologist and they had been deep sea fishing over Spring Break. He caught a big ling and had frozen steaks in their car. He gave us some, much to the dismay of my SO, who believed that he did not like grilled fish of any kind, no way, no how.

Well, we thawed the fish out and I made a marinade of garlic, butter, fresh-squeezed lemon, and coarse-ground pepper. SO built a fire in our barrel pit, and cooked the steaks for 10 minutes on each side. They were thick steaks, maybe two inches thick. While they were grilling, I came in and made dilled carrots and steamed some broccoli, fixed garlic bread and poured two glasses of a tart Australian white wine. It was an absolutely delicious meal. The fish was delectable, firm and white, mild-flavored, and just excellent. My SO has changed his mind entirely about grilled fish, and is already planning ways he will adjust his fire the next time we try it. I'm sure ling from a fish market would not be as fresh tasting as this was, but we know of several fish markets on the Coast where we spend a lot of weekends, and we'll try to find some more ling cod when we're down there next.

Today, it was a bluebird day. Aside from cooking out, we also drained and cleaned the hot tub. While it was draining, I stepped up some of the veggies in the greenhouse. I'm focused on growing flowers now and would really like to get the vegetables out of there. We paid a visit to our friend who had open-heart surgery, and I took three tomato plants to him. I had just put them in 1-gallon containers so he shouldn't have to DO anything to them for a few weeks. He's always had a large garden, and last summer kept us in more peppers and cherry tomatoes than we were able to eat. Hopefully, he can container farm these plants I took today, and they'll provide him with a bounty and with something to keep him occupied that doesn't require any physical exertion.

My SO will be leaving for a few days on Sunday, and I'm already feeling the need for a lot of together time before he goes. I'll be joining him after a few days, but the few we'll be apart will be lonely ones. But I've been working on an article I hope to find a home for about backyard greenhouses and I'll use the apart time to whip it into shape. Need to write a compelling query, too. I have an idea of where I'm going to submit it, and they're very specific in their guidelines about querying.

Onward ....