It is February here in the Frozen North, so even though we had some gorgeous weather over the past week or so, we’re back to normal cold winter.  The last few days though, I have to say, it’s been looking really gross out.  All brown and dirty and yucky, so it might as well snow some more right?

Ah well, if it’s not going to be spring, there might as well be fresh snow to keep it looking nice.

We had a bright moment yesterday afternoon though! The first of the seeds came!  My order from Johnny’s Seeds came yesterday, and going through them, I felt all giddy with excitement.  Mostly I ordered my beans, scallions, and my cole crops from them.  I went with a rainbow of beans this year, green, yellow wax and royal purple, and then I went with a fantastic speckled variety that says it’s great fresh or dried- Tongue of Fire, I believe they are called.  This year I’ll also be doing a blend of pole and bush beans, as I haven’t had great luck with poles, but love the idea of the pole beans being prolific.  I also purchased some inoculant, and this will be my first time using it.  The inoculant kind of gives beans and peas a boost. It’s completely organic and safe to use, and while I’m not entirely remembering what it does, I have heard that the yield on the beans is much better with the use of inoculant.

My cabbage didn’t come though, and I’m thinking I might pick up some seeds at my garden center, because it’s on backorder, and will be shipped a full three weeks after I should have had them started.   Next Saturday, in fact, I will be starting the cabbage and the broccoli, provided I have the seeds.   I’m striving for a spring garden with the cole crops, to see if I can avoid those horrible cabbage moths.

My leeks also didn’t come, also on backorder.  I still have some leek seed though from last year, so I’ll start those and see if this other variety comes in with time to plant.  I loved having leeks in the garden.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be giving my garden plan a thorough going-over.  I have an initial layout which I used to order seeds with, but I think it will need some tweaking.  I’ll share that as it comes.