February full of promise.

A third of March is already gone and it is high time we sum up the last month on the land. February was very mild and lots of plants are putting on substantial growth already. Our kale plants from last year are doing great and we are harvesting small fresh leaves for stir-fries and smoothies on a regular basis.

It is thankfully a bit colder now and the temperature is preventing plants from opening their buds too early and get frost damage.

Our herb spiral was very overgrown and we spent a lovely sunny afternoon clearing the weeds and old plants away and trimming the herbs back so that lots of new healthy growth can develop. We highly value our herbs and there is not a day that goes by that we do not use them for something, either dried in teas and remedies, in healing oils for the skin or simply added to cooking. We wrote about making oils for skin products in this previous post.

A bit overgrown.

Even if you have a small garden, balcony or just a sunny windowsill there are lots of herbs you can grow and enjoy. This is the time of year to start planning and preparing for your own special space filled with nourishing and healing herbs. If you plant them outside you are also doing all pollinators a great favour. Bumblebees have apparently now officially joined the endangered species list and this fills us with dread and sadness.

Basil and Garlic shoots on our window ledge.

Every month we take pictures in the four main directions of the compass and you can see that the garden is starting to green up a bit now.

East

South

West

North

We are busy planting seeds both at home and in the community garden and it is always a very special feeling seeing the small seedlings emerge. Each year filled with new possibilities, maybe an unexpected taste sensation or flowers with delightful colours and scents. There is truly magic in those small packets of dry seeds just waiting to be unleashed.

We put in a few crocus bulbs last year and we think they look lovely in the February sunlight, a small, sweet prelude to the explosion of colour and shape soon to invade our land.  We have already seen a newt, peacock butterfly, several bees and a ladybird so there is hope for the year ahead. We hope you find yourself in a place where you can enjoy the wonders of nature this month.

Oh, and we almost forgot to mention the masses of frogspawn in our ponds…