There is nothing that gets my gardening juices flowing more than a string of dry days, a little blue sky, and the mercury flirting in the low 60’s. Such was the case last week and boy did I take advantage of it - this is often the case in March.

For most of us that live in the Northwest, we are faced with either sandy soils that drain so fast it is impossible to keep them watered or that hateful stuff known as glacial till, that is nothing more than rocks and clay and is impossible to get a shovel into and doesn’t drain worth a hoot. 

As I am writing this column on a Sunday afternoon, I am looking out my window to a magical sight. Snow has now been falling for 24 hours and there is an accumulation of eight to ten inches covering virtually everything in the yard.

Under this blanket of white are my blooming hellebores, snow drops, and budded daffodils.

There’s nothing like a fresh bowl of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or blackberries straight out of the garden, and now is the time to plant them!

All of these berries are well suited for growing in the Northwest and are readily available from garden centers this time of year.

January is seed starting time and like a lot of things in life, it’s not always as easy as we professionals make it look. To be successful you have to show up on a consistent basis and pay attention to what is happening. 

Okay my gardening friends, 2020 is behind us and it is time to start drooling over the seed catalogues and visiting garden centers to see what looks interesting this time of year. While January may seem like a slow month in the garden, it is a very busy one in the garden center.

If you are looking for a gift that will keep on giving year after year, then why not consider a winter blooming plant?

Each year at the same time, they will come into bloom and decorate your garden at a time when the days are dark and long and the hope for another bright spring is still far off in the future.

This “to-do” list contains lots of chores to accomplish before old man winter sets in. Get as many done as you can and then relax, stoke up the fire, eat some more turkey and start dreaming about next spring.

Winters in the northwest can be unpredictable. As I look around my neighborhood, I can still see trees (like my neighbor’s corkscrew willow) that are green as grass and completely foliated, while next to them are maples that are fully denuded of all their summer leaves.  

We all have our passions and hobbies in life that we choose to partake in, when time and money permits. Sometimes, when these interests disrupt the balance in our lives, we call them addictions. Here are five signs that you might be a “Hortaholic…”