FEBRUARY CAN BE DREARY for a gardener, so I like to do some things that are just plain fun. The gardening books I look at now aren't practical, they're stories. A new book to ponder is The Spirituality of Gardening, by Thunder Bay writer Donna Sinclair. Sinclair maintains that connecting with plants and earth can be a sacred experience. Richardson Wright is an author who manages to make garden writing funny. Wright, the editor of House and Garden magazine in the 1920s and '30s, was recommended to me by novelist Annie Proulx. Wright's The Gardener's Bed Book, containing 365 entries, was recently reprinted, but some of his other titles might be found in used bookstores. That's where I discovered his Winter Diversions of a Gardener, a collection of essays about such phenomena as the flower-painting ladies of Victorian England. Another excellent writer is Michael Pollan, who is a professor of journalism and former executive editor of Atlantic Monthly magazine. His Second Nature (1991), my favourite, describes his progress from naïve hippie gardener to pragmatic environmentalist. Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, will be published this spring. Another fun book is Des Kennedy's Living Things We Love to Hate, available online from Whitecap Books. This British Columbia writer can make you laugh out loud. There are fun things to grow this time of year, too. I admit to being a fan of potted chrysanthemums from a nursery or the supermarket. They last at most a couple of months before fading, but at their best they give the house a touch of the joy of summer. There are also lovely azaleas, and the fuschias you buy now can move outdoors in early summer to hang in a shady place. A cyclamen will bloom non-stop through the winter if you keep it cool and watered. This may be the time to dip your toe into the fascinating world of orchid culture, by purchasing one of the easy-to-grow ones, especially a Phalaenopsis. Amaryllis bulbs that didn't sell during the holidays are often bargains in late winter, and they will give you fabulous tropical flowers long before you see anything blooming out the window. Thorny, woody bougainvillea vines will flower profusely indoors, given the right sunny spot. By February, my big pots of overwintering geraniums (pelargoniums) are blooming well, although they grow leggy in indoor light and will demand cutting back before I return them to the porch in May. Remember that all indoor plants need room-temperature water, never cold. When you feel like putting your hands in dirt - well, okay, seed starting mix - you can start some seeds indoors. All you need is a sunny window; so much the better if you can supplement the natural light with a fluorescent tube or two. Slow growing vegetables that need an early start include parsley, peppers and onions. There are countless flowers that should be started in February, even common ones such as impatiens, begonias, petunias, nicotiana and pelargoniums. Left too late, they won't catch up to the ones sold in garden stores. Even so, you'll likely have flowers different from what you could buy in a flat. There is nothing that reassures you the days are lengthening like the sight of tiny seedlings reaching toward the window. You may sometimes doubt that spring is coming, but they never do. - JENNIFER BENNETT Jennifer Bennett welcomes feedback at jenben@istar.ca or via acreagelife.editors@producer.com.