Garden Away Winter Blahs

Its a new year and the garden sleeps.

This winter so far hasn't been horrible for us and in fact it has just been a plain ol' typical winter. The temperature has been only below zero once or twice and there has been pretty steady layer of snow covering the ground for the last couple months (with the exception of the 'January thaw' that we go in December when it all melted). This January lacked the thaw we got last year, which was pretty awesome for anyone with the winter blues.

Winter blues... ugh. I'm keeping in mind that February is nearly here and in my books... once March hits- its spring! I'm an optimist anyway, but when I look back at my garden log records it helps remind me that's when temperatures start rising back up into the 50's and sometimes 60's. March is when I can start working outdoors. Its when it rains again and sometimes there's even the first thunderstorm of the year. With January almost over- I'm thinking winter in general is in countdown mode.

Gardening helps me get through the winter. Dreaming of the spring to come, I start breaking out some of my gardening books and read away. I think there must be something to say about being seasonally minded. The cycle of the seasons reminds you that nothing lasts forever- including winter. In winter you may not be able to be out 'gardening' per say, but you can still garden inside by working on the planning aspects.

Did you know that January is national seed catalog month? Though I've only received two so far, other folks may be finding themselves inundated by seed catalogs by now. This timing seems to make a lot of sense. First, the seed companies know that in the depth of winter we gardeners need a little light of hope and to their benefit this probably leads to a lot of impulsive catalog purchasing. Secondly, the reality is- you got to plan ahead.

The laments of a gardener who planted something at the wrong time or not at all is unnecessary. Spend your winter down time to do all the planning work. Decide what to grow. Buy the needed seeds. Map out where things will be planted or what the crop rotation will be. Find out what and when seeds should be started indoors. Determine when seeds can be direct sown. Figure out any succession planting that can be done. These are just some of the things that you can get all organized about now so that its not sudden chaos when the warm weather, weeds and pests return.