Let It SUN

    This is my favorite week in February...and no, I am NOT speaking about Valentine’s Day ---which is not currently high on my list of favorite holidays at the moment---even though I have nothing against chocolate---chocolate and I are still friends. Rather I am speaking of that week of lovely weather that we always seem to get in February. That week when the rain stops, the sun shines brightly and the temperature can climb towards the 60’s; that lovely week when it is possible to believe on the concept of an early spring.

  

It’s a great week to get outside in the garden and do all of those chores that you didn’t get finished in the fall—or in my case, neglected to even start. My excuse? One: I was busy INSIDE my water-heater flooded-house and Two: I firmly believe that leaving a few sharp stalks of last summer's phlox will discourage the elk from attempting to eat the tender new growth this spring. But now, the thought of spending time in the sunshine clipping off the dead stalks of last year’s phlox seems less like a chore and more of a chance to play hooky from all of my indoor responsibilities.

   It’s refreshing to see the tender signs of new growth and sometimes I need to caution myself NOT to remove too much of Nature’s sheltering mulch—the dead windblown leaves that have collected around the dormant clumps and lumps of my sleeping perennials. As warm as the day may be, as close as spring might feel, I have to remind myself that it is, after all, still February and winter will more than likely stage a chilly comeback. No reason to leave my plants without their winter coats.