The light is definitely changing. I have to be quick now because in the middle of the afternoon the sun angles in the potting shed windows, arcs across the monitor screen and slides underneath my eyelids like it’s trying to poke me awake from my wintertime torporific stupor. Ground Hog’s Day has always been my favorite holiday because for me it marks spring within reach. Regardless of whether we get a Blizzard of ’78 anniversary event or even snow in March, spring is still inevitable and closer by the day. The birds are singing, the sun is high enough and warm enough to send the greenhouse vents flapping and we’re getting into gear – a slow first gear to warm up our engines for the big spring push starting for us, in March and April.

A couple of volunteers came in today to help Gail and me tackle the weeds. Just like any other garden, the greenhouse desperately needs to be weeded every minute and the Kenilworth Ivy (Cymbalaria muralis) had gotten ahead of us. I think it looks pretty but it’s a very tasty harbor for the dreaded whitefly. Maybe thanks to my pest-icidal tendencies (I’m a killing machine armed with a soapy water spray bottle), we didn’t have clouds of whitefly up our noses and instead just suffered the discomfort of out of practice squats and deep knee bends. (Gardener calisthenics)

I know I’m not the only one to be easily distracted in the garden, or in this case, the greenhouse (Carol at May Dreams Gardens has written a lot about it) but you’d think because I do this every day and for a living that I might have achieved a little more focus by now. This morning I very purposely started unpotting this poor potbound Colocasia (C. fallax), then I’m not sure what happened – maybe I noticed a weed or wanted my camera or saw something shiny and the next thing I knew hours had gone forgotten by. My hori-hori was still impaled in the pot and poor babies were high and dry on the floor. All is well though. I went back to it and have it almost all divided and repotted now. Hey look, the iris are starting to bloom!