I cannot wait to get out in the garden! As I write this in late February, we are still stuck in the muck and mud cycle. The soil is way too wet to work and besides it is cloudy, windy and cold outside. How dare the weather continue to act like winter, just because it is winter!

Once upon a time many years ago I lived in Chicago. I liked it. I even liked the snow and ice and heavy-duty winter stuff— until my Texas heart told me it was time for Spring.

That feeling has nothing to do with dates and calendars and sun phases. It has to do with deep-seated rhythms that urge us outside, into the garden, and up to our elbows in compost.

It has to do with fresh tomato deprivation, with the frozen peaches having been eaten before Christmas, and with the need to pick flowers for the kitchen table.

I know that in my area the average last frost date is March 15. I’ve known that for years but it doesn’t seem to make the least bit of difference.

By Valentine’s Day, I’m ready to garden. I’m ready for the sun to shine and the ground to be workable.

This year all I’ve been able to accomplish is the planting of onion starts. I use a sophisticated method of poking a hole in the mud with a pencil and dropping the skinny little onions in the hole. Sure the pencil compacts the wet soil a little, but it doesn’t have much force behind it, and you have to get the onions in!

You understand I don’t need onions. My neighbor grows tons of onions and always gives me all I want. That is beside the point. I don’t need onions. I need to plant onions. I need to plant something!