Gardening while freezing

My Harlem terrace gardening began a few days ago, when I planted a modest packet of fava beans. They are the earliest crop, and one plants them around the time crocuses open. And here in Harlem, on the slopes below Columbia University and the Cathedral of St John the Divine, the crocuses have opened.

On Saturday, when I saw a nursery trolley of pansies, violas and miniature daffodils outside Best Yet, a neighbourhood supermarket, I fell for it. At least , for the violas. The price for a flat (48 plants) was about half what it is at the nurseries and plant shops I have visited in Brooklyn and elsewhere in Manhattan.

And that is why I gardened on the terrace yesterday, in temperatures hovering around freezing, despite the Frenchman's admonitions about frostbite. True, when I came indoors, while my core was perfectly warm, my toes and fingers were not. But now we have spring flowers that will last till the really warm weather.

I gave my roses some food, too. And sowed grass for the cat.

And all that made me really happy.