Winter in Alabama is never just one season, it’s a multitude of seasons stitched together, keeping us guessing at what we should wear today while giving us a touch of weather whiplash for good measure. We spent January and the first days of February wrapped in frigid temperatures, some ice, and those previously mentioned thirteen snowflakes, all while missing several days of school.

Those unexpected home days became a gift of sorts, time for early spring cleaning and for tackling all the tasks only a homeowner understands, and a teacher can never find time for. You know the tasks: the little things that aren’t obvious but somehow make a house truly clean. I found myself scrubbing baseboards with a toothbrush, pulling every book and bit of décor from the shelves to dust, washing dog beds, shampooing rugs, and stepping back at the end of the day with a deep, satisfying sense of accomplishment.

Then, just like that, the weather turned. After dressing for the North Pole on Monday morning, I was reaching for a T-shirt by afternoon. Apparently, fools spring has arrived in the South. Why fool’s spring you ask? This is the time of the season where we all get our hopes up as warmer weather teases us. We shuck off our coats and sweaters, dive into yard work and gardening foolhardily as if winter is over. One of our neighbors was mowing yesterday evening!

The catch is, there is more winter coming. We know the story all too well.

All the famous groundhogs from Punxsutawney Phil to General Beauregard Lee, predicted six more weeks of winter. Of course, the Gregorian calendar tells us the very same thing. But anyone living below the Mason-Dixon can tell you this warm spell is a fluke. We’re being teased and tortured with mild afternoons, spring-style rains, and skies so blue you almost believe winter is over. I remember one March years ago when we woke to nearly twelve inches of snow.

Alabama weather is nothing if not completely uncertain, and winter is not over.

But I’m not one to let a stretch of good weather go to waste.

So, what have I been up to during this stretch of 60–70-degree temperatures in this season of fool’s spring?

I’ve been outside every chance I get.

February, no matter how fickle, is the ideal time to prepare the garden for what’s ahead. Roses need pruning, landscaped beds benefit from a fresh blanket of pine straw or mulch, and the garden beds are begging for a good weeding. I’ve been adding bone meal to the soil, feeding the hellebores and bulbs that are bravely beginning to pop up, and giving the roses a little encouragement as well.

The chickens are free ranging a bit longer into the evening as the sun is setting closer to 5:30 than 4:45. Our garden gate has been left open for my sweet girls to dig and play in dormant garden beds, loosening up the compacted dirt and roots left to compost from last summer’s veg, and moving weeds around that I will hopefully remove over the next few days.

Cool-weather vegetables are going into their neatly made beds: leeks, carrots, cabbages, onion sets, broccoli… and I’ve tucked a few new peony starts into the ground along with summer bulbs like gladiolus. This is the dreaming season, when you can still imagine the garden exactly as you want it to be before the weeds and heat have their say.

Feeding existing plants alongside new ones is especially important this time of year. We need nutrition and care during and after winter, and so do our gardens. I’m partial to Fox Farm’s organic feeds and Espoma organic materials, but I also rely on Osmocote slow-release fertilizers. Our soil gets amended with bone meal, compost (the chickens provide a fair amount of that), and any other untreated organic material we can work in.

My February Garden List

• Prune roses and remove any winter damage
• Refresh beds with pine straw or mulch
• Weed garden spaces before spring growth explodes
• Add bone meal or compost to beds
• Feed emerging bulbs and established roses
• Plant cool-weather vegetables:
  • leeks
  • carrots
  • cabbage
  • onion sets
  • broccoli
• Plant peony roots and summer bulbs like gladiolus
• Begin dreaming and sketching spring garden plans

Fool’s spring may be a trickster, but I’ve learned to welcome it anyway. Even if winter has one more surprise up her sleeve, these few warm afternoons remind me that the garden is ready to wake up, and so am I.