For the first time in quite some time, we had enough snow and cold that I paid someone to shovel out my driveway. Normally I clear it off myself but we had at least eight inches of snow the other day, if not more. That alone was a lot to shovel, but what made the decision to hire out the work easier was the two foot mountain of snow at the end of the drive left by the snow plow which came through twice. And it has been well below freezing all week.

I found the guys who did the job when I sent out an SOS (shovel out snow) tweet to my sister asking if her kids had any friends who were shoveling drives. They did not but her co-worker had a nephew…

It turns out he also does landscaping and lawn mowing and he might be just the person to hire in another month or so to remove a couple of big evergreen shrubs that I’ve decided are too big for the spaces I’ve allotted for them.

Yes, that will be one benefit of all this snow… I found someone to remove some shrubs.

It always comes back to the garden.

In other news, Dee sent me the following quote last week for our podcast, The Gardenangelists:

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 

― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

We then debated whether the snow is really that gentle. Maybe in England, but in the Midwest and the plains of the United States? Possibly. It is snowing quite gently here right now, on top of the snow already on the ground and sadly covering up my freshly shoveled out driveway. Fortunately, it won’t be too much for me to scrape off once it stops.

I hope it stops soon.

Another thought on this snowy February day is that an alternative definition for the word “February” is “sick of snow.” In a sentence, you ask? I am so February right now!

But really, I cannot complain. I have a mostly cleared driveway, the power works, the furnace works. I’ve also ordered and received almost all of my seeds and listed them all on a spreadsheet so I can make sure not to forget to sow something at the right time. My cyclamen is blooming in the sunroom.

Plus, the snow is insulating the garden from all the cold weather and adding nitrogen to the soil. (One of many articles about snow and nitrogen if you are interested in reading more about that.)

That means that the garden will be that much better this spring because of all the snow!

Really, it truly all comes back to the garden.

A final, for now, February thought… If you are reading this post before February 23, hop on over to the podcast and listen to any episode to find out how to enter a drawing to win a copy of Plant Partners: Science-Based Strategies for the Vegetable Garden by Jessica Walliser. Many thanks to Jessica and Storey Publishing for sponsoring this giveaway.

After reading this, and seeing what all I’m blessed with in this month between January and March, I’m not so February after all!