But here I am, back in the Far North. Every fiber of my being wants to be outside gardening. But I am looking out on a great deal of ice and some snow. Not very encouraging. But I have faith, I know that I will start tomatoes, lettuce and basil tomorrow, and I will consider that the start of my gardening season.

John and I and, of course, Paris, the terrier took a long beach walk with these wonderful low tides. We went to Two Sisters for coffee to warm up and I was looking out the window at the houses right there on Bishop's Beach and thought "I would hang myself if I lived on wetlands."

For those of you who feel you need to live practically on the beach or even over on Beluga Lake and find yourself faced with a wetland situation, take heart, I think. You will need to be gardening in containers. Which makes more sense than trying to bring in soil (I don't think you are even allowed to do that there must be some kind of permit that you would need to acquire. Start looking now for appropriate containers that you can locate on your deck and grow enough salad greens and the like to satisfy your need to garden. I refuse to give into the thought that you don't want to garden and have chosen to live there because you just don't really even care.

Now that you know that I am starting tomatoes, lettuce and basil I need to add artichokes to that list. This is a vegetable that we should all be planting. There is just nothing like eating a fresh picked 'choke. They are delicious. I have found that the Green Globe seems to do the trick. Although this is technically a perennial, I start them every year and treat them as an annual. There have been some gardeners that have had success with holding them over. This depends on what the winter holds for us and just how much mulch you applied in the fall. It is worth trying but just in case it doesn't work they are easy enough to start from seed.

Last year I tried Imperial Star, which is an annual, so you would think that it would be that much earlier. No go. I won't ever give them my time again. They failed to germinate for me and I started them three times. Fortunately I have friends that started so many Green Globes that they had enough to share with me, and they were wonderful. Artichokes have been getting bad press in the Anchorage Daily News. Apparently there are those who grow them for their flower, a thistle-like purple bloom that must be lovely, but I am all about eating the bud. Really, I can't decide what gets the most bragging rights, the artichokes or the garlic.

The Homer Garden Club has been having some outstanding programs this winter. Unfortunately for me the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra meets for rehearsals at the same time. I have missed some very timely programs, one of which really piqued my interest: compost tea. A friend passed along the handout and I read it thoroughly but remain skeptical. At the Seattle garden show I met Giovanni Anichini, a founding member of the International Compost Tea Council and owner of Ground Up (www.groundup.net). I presented him with background information on my garden and then posed this question: Just what can compost tea do for me? Well, let me tell you, this guy is passionate about compost tea. Which is, in itself, refreshing in this day and age of rampant apathy. His answer, boiled down: the plants will be stronger and, thus, extend your growing season. Well now. Seeing is believing.

I have every intention of giving compost tea a try. I think. The whole setup is rather pricey. You don't just take a shovelful of your own compost and make a tea out of it like you have always done, no siree. You need to buy dry tea that someone has manufactured (like Giovanni) and put it into an aerator. Maybe the club would like to buy the setup and rent it out to members. Now there's a thought.

The official planting-out date is three months away, Memorial Day. But if you have a greenhouse, get going on tomatoes, lettuce, herbs and anything else that strikes your fancy.

Note: The Homer Garden Club meets the fourth Sunday of the month at 2 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.