February in the Mid-South garden

Hello again, Mid-South gardeners. I hope none of you are buried in ice and snow this morning. Are any of you in the southern areas able to plant outdoors yet?

February is the time when I really get itchin' to start planting something - anything. I did a little planting last week. I sowed one container of corn salad, garden cress, and arugula seeds to give us some winter greens to supplement our diet. I also started leek and celeriac seeds. When I checked this morning the arugula and cress are up and growing. I didn't even put them in a warm place. I just sowed them, placed the containers on an old cookie sheet, and stuck them in a sunny windowsill. I add plenty of water to the cookie sheet to water them from the bottom. I was actually surprised to see that something had sprouted when I didn't cover the containers with plastic and set them in a warm location. Perhaps it makes a difference that these are cool weather crops.

I've really been enjoying exchanging seed with several of our forum members. It's a great way to try some new varieties for the cost of a single postage stamp. It's also great if you only need a handful of seeds to plant in a square. You don't have to buy an entire package that would likely last beyond its viability date.

Let us know what's going on in your garden - inside or out - during this shortest month of the year.

I'm in the lower south region, 8a NE TX, and I just thought I'd pop in and tell you what we were seeing, so you could know to expect in in a couple of weeks. The daffodil tips are peeking up out of the ground. The grass is starting to slowly turn green. I've noticed our "early" tree is getting buds, and the squirrels are playing again. This will all be in your neighborhood in about 2-3 weeks if not sooner, so keep your eyes peeled, spring is coming, I've seen hints of it. Oh, and the wild onions are out and about in the back yard too!

Are you getting hammered with that winter storm that is battering Dallas?

It looks as though we are just going to miss it here, but sympathy to all those in its path. Ice storms are not funny.

Yep, it hit about 6:30 this morning, complete with thunder and lightening. It's slowed a bit, but I can feel the temps dipping. Our chimney for our wood burning stove, folded in half just after the last snow melted, and hubby has the day off and is in NO hurry to go out and fix it. I may need to step outside in my bare feet, then come get in bed to warm them!!! We are expecting a mix, but I doubt we get any snow, from what I have seen, we may be too far north for any real snow. I know that sounds crazy, but last year or the year before, Dallas got a foot of snow and we got less than an inch of rain, again we were too far north for snow-go figure. I will never understand the weather here in NE TX-I'm in the Texarkana area, it' is constantly changing. In fact they say down here in TX we have 4 seasons, Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and Christmas.....

I'm not exactly mid-south, but I'm down south. Here in North Alabama, i've started my peppers and herbs inside, they are up and I'll transplant them to 4" pots soon. This last weekend was real nice outside and I took the opportunity to rejuvinate my beds. I also planted some. I sowed a square of sugar snap peas and a square of Little Marvel peas. I also put in a square each of: red, white and yellow onions (I bought them from a local big-box store, so I don't know the cultivar).

I harvested a little broccoli this weekend as well. I still have some lettuce that's survived the cold and thriving. These were in a bed with a hoop house over it for the winter.

The spring bulbs are up, butter-cups are about 4-5 inches tall. Many trees have started their spring buds.

I'm going to call a guy to come out and cut about 8 trees down in the next few weeks (trying to get more sun to my garden area). Things are going well. I plan on starting my tomatoes and most other indoor starts on President's day.

This is what I'm putting in my beds this year:

Artichoke 'Emerald'
Bean 'Bona Fide'
Bean 'Bush Blue Lake 274'
Bean 'Kitchen King'
Bean 'Maxi Bean'
Broccoli 'Barbados Hybrid'
Broccoli 'De Cicco'
Broccoli 'Raab'
Broccoli 'Early Purple Sprouting'
Cabbage 'Copenhagen Market Early'
Cabbage 'Early Golden Acre'
Carrots 'Short 'n Sweet'
Carrots 'Nantes'
Cucumber 'Sumter'
Cucumber 'Marketmore 76'
Eggplant 'Black Beauty'
Eggplant 'Little Fingers'
Arugula
Lettuce 'Bibb'
Lettuce 'Black Seeded Simpson'
Lettuce 'Parris Island COS'
Lettuce 'Valerie'
Lettuce 'Granada'
Lettuce 'Salad Bowl'
Okra 'Emerald'
Okra 'Burgundy'
Okra 'Clemson Spineless'
Onion 'Evergreen Long White Bunching'
Onion 'Parade'
Onion, Red
Onion, White
Onion, Yellow
Pea 'Sugar Snap'
Pea 'Little Marvel'
Pepper 'Habanero'
Pepper 'Sweet Banana'
Pepper 'Anaheim Chili'
Pepper 'California Wonder'
Pepper 'Hybrid Gurney's Giant II'
Radish 'Cherry Belle'
Radish 'Sparkler'
Spinach 'Bloomsdale'
Spinach 'Teton Hybrid'
Squash 'Burgess Buttercup'
Squash 'Waltham Butternut'
Squash 'Amberpic Hybrid'
Squash 'Lemon'
Squash 'Hybrid Gentry'
Squash 'Dixie Hybrid'
Swiss Chard 'Large Ribbed Dark Green'
Swiss Chard 'Ruby'
Tomato 'Sweetie'
Tomato 'Red Cherry'
Tomato 'Orange Icicle'
Tomato 'Ozark Pink'
Tomato 'Aunt Ruby's German Green'
Tomato 'Beefsteak'
Tomato 'Rutgers'
Tomato 'German Johnson'
Tomato 'San Marzano'
Tomato 'Brandywine'
Tomato 'Pruden's Purple'
Tomato 'Mortgage Lifter'
Tomato 'Yellow Pear'
Tomato 'Better Boy'
Tomato 'Roma'

The salad greens go in my "Miriam's Salad Bed". It's for my 17 year old daughter, she loves the salads.
The Tomatos go in my "Rochelle's Bed". That's my wife, she loves tomato sandwiches. We're trying a bunch of different varieties to see which is her favorite.
I also have a "Caitlyn's Bed". It gets the Bell Peppers, Okra, Beans and Butternut Squash. She is 12 and those are her favorites.
I started a bed for herbs last year. It's getting various herbs. I also put them in hanging pots around the garden.

Other plans for this year:

Put up a split-rail fence around the garden area.
Build some of Josh's "Wall of Flowers" bottle containers and put herbs in them. This will go on the trellis that is up around our deck. I'm also going to try to put in a gutter planter that I saw in the internet. I have a stick of gutter that's about 10 feet long, I'm going to mount on the deck trellis and try to plant it with herbs and some salad greens.
Build some global buckets with five gallon buckets and try peppers and tomatos in them. These will go on the deck. I plan on trying about 8 of them.

I also started a pyramid strawberry bed last year. I hope it produces well, the plants look good right now. These are over near my other berry plants: Blackberry, Raspberry and Blueberry. I also purchased some Gooseberrys that will ship to me later this spring.

Cold snap coming next week though, but I'm looking forward to spring.