February gardening in the Pacific Northwest -- indoors and out

I'm spending about an hour every day gardening, now. Some of that time is spent indoors, starting seeds or planting pots. The rest of the time is spent outdoors, planting some of those bulbs I potted, as well as pulling weeds and invasive plants.

Do you remember this pot from late November? I had trimmed various shrubs from around the property and poked branches into a pot of soil.

I took that wintery-looking pot, and cleaned out all of the branches. I repotted with spring-flowering bulbs. I spread out some newspapers and worked on the kitchen floor, where I was cozy warm. 

I have a nice stash of potted bulbs to choose from, these days. I just step out to my deck and pick a few little pots. This has worked so well for me, that I think I'll be doing this again next year (buying bulbs on clearance and potting, with the idea that I can use them in spring).

It's a bit of a mess right now. But once a rain washes the leaves, it should look much better. I used some pink hyacinth, purple grape hyacinth and mixed purple and white crocus in this pot. I also potted up a single pink hyacinth into a smaller pot for the bedroom window.

While gardening, I also moved more lettuce seedlings out to the portable greenhouse, and began some more vegetable seeds.

If you're following along with my vegetable garden for this year, so far:

• I've started a couple dozen green leaf lettuce seedlings (Black Seeded Simpson). I tried several old packets of seeds, and this one particular seed is the only type that has germinated. Green leaf lettuce it shall be!
• I've planted 2 dozen seed-starting cells with green onions. So far, about 1/3 of those cells has germinated. I'm hoping for more in the next few days.
• I've planted 18 seed-starting cells with green cabbage. They are just now beginning to germinate.
• Yesterday, I started 18 cells of kale seeds and 27 cells of Spanish white onions.

All of these are for transplanting into the garden in March. Last year, I direct seeded the onions and they just didn't have enough time, so I'm trying seedlings this year. The cabbage, as well was direct seeded last year, and I'm curious if we could be harvesting cabbage in summer, by starting the seeds indoors this year.

For plastic seed-starting cells, I'm reusing some that I've had in the garage for a long time. My flats have all cracked and now leak, but I did find some aluminum foil trays and large baking pans that I can use for flats, for the time being. (My husband brings these home after group lunches at work. I'm glad to finally find a use them.)

In the garden itself, shallots and garlic are up, the kale, Swiss chard and radish greens are still usable. And in the perennials, the chives are up and could be used, as well as the sorrel. The rhubarb is just now poking through the soil. I'm thinking rhubarb pie in about a month!

February gardening is easy and slow. There's no rush this time of year. However, when March rolls around, I'll definitely feel that rush to get everything going. It's nice to have this month to ease into the heavy gardening.

Clearance tablecloth shopping -- for the fabric

I bought this tablecloth on clearance at Marshall's, after Christmas. They had 2 and I'm kicking myself for not buying the other one, as well.

This is a Le Telerie Toscane tablecloth. They retail for about $90 for this large size (66 X 108). Marshall's had them on clearance for $15. Its exactly the fabric that I've been hoping to find, for our kitchen table to use in spring and summer. But it's way too large. I have noticed that the large sizes hang around, in clearance, whereas the smaller sizes (66 X 90) just don't.

However, "too large" is really not an issue for me. In fact, it's a bonus. This cloth is almost twice as large as I need for our table. I currently have it folded over on the table. When I cut it down to size, it will give me enough fabric to make an apron or some cloth napkins, to match.

Why I'm kicking myself for only buying one is that I could have made aprons or tea towels, as gifts with the second cloth. At 108 inches, there are 3 yards of 66 inch-wide fabric. It's thick, high quality fabric, too. It would definitely make a nice apron. At $15 for the whole cloth, that is $5 per yard.  A "home decor" fabric to be used to make a tablecloth or apron, of a nice toile print, would run at least $20/yd at the fabric store. Even with a coupon or great sale, we're still talking at least twice the price per yard, to buy a similar fabric at the fabric store.

So, I missed my chance to buy that second cloth. But it got me to thinking, clearance or thrifted high-quality tablecloths are a great source of fabric for making aprons or tea towels, fabric hot pads, or teapot cozies, to give as gifts. And if you happen to come across these large sizes, when what you need is something smaller for your table, if you don't mind doing a little sewing to cut it down in size, you would have leftover fabric for making something else to coordinate with the cloth.

(just for kicks, I googled Le Telerie Toscane toile burgundy tablecloth, and found this exact cloth on ebay for $89.90, and on Amazon for $89.99)