february 5

success! first seeds of the year have been planted. the wee child “helped me.” these will be verbana hastata, a beautiful, spiky, purple perennial. in mimicry of nature, we started them in the cold. imagine being a seed dropped in the fall, you snuggle up under a bed of leaves, and fall asleep. Shits cold out, but there’s no need to wake up yet. your resting self is building up energy reserves. after all, you’ll need it when. you wake up and are expected to start flowering. but that’s not till that indefinable spring warmth in the air, the cue to wake up. the fancy word for this whole process is “vernalization.”