Ever wonder if Valentine’s Day was invented to make February a bit less miserable? I know—that’s not the actual reason. But it would make sense, wouldn’t it?
I find February to be the most depressing month as a gardener. Perhaps some of you live in areas where you are seeing signs of spring already. Here in New England, we don’t often get to experience that glimmer of hope. At this point in the calendar, we have been through snowy (and frenetic) December and icy January, and we’re now in the midst of the serious gray doldrums—and surrounded by brown snowbanks that have long overstayed their welcome. It is, quite frankly, maddening.
To help myself cope, I like to divide the gardening year into four quarters: Planning, Planting, Caring, Cleaning. This enables me to reclassify February from “Depressing Third Month Without Gardening” to “Hopeful Month of Plotting My Spring Attack.” These are the weeks that I lay out large plans, like the extension of our bluestone patio, and calculate the materials I’ll need and the costs associated, which often leads to a rejiggering of the original idea. You’ll also find me making a million lists of plants: that I need for filling holes, that I want for my containers, or that I pine for but probably can’t afford. (I see you ‘Lady Sunshine’ dove tree, and one day, you will be mine.)
How much of this comes to fruition depends on the year. But I’ve realized that the point of all this February planning is to give my gardening soul a boost when it needs it most. It’s not necessarily about the reality of what I might accomplish.
It does help that I get to work on the early spring issue of a gardening magazine during the depths of winter, and this particular edition gave me lots of inspiration. For instance, I’ve added several colorful plants from the regional reports to my “must-have in 2025” list. If I follow through on planting these gems, perhaps next year I’ll be less depressed because I’ll know that spring, when it finally arrives, will be spectacular.
If you’re feeling the February funk too, I suggest flipping through the following pages with a notebook and a pen nearby, because I can almost guarantee inspiration will strike. So it seems the most depressing month has a purpose after all—it’s just a little hard to see it under all the brown slush.
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Comments
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