In my video today, I share the tasks that I typically do in January to prep for the growing season ahead. I call it a very slow easing into gardening mode. After the madness of what our growing season can be, I’m reluctant to ramp things up too soon.
So here are the tasks I’m typically doing in January:
1) Most importantly, and even before January, I practice my 4 Rs: Rest, Relax, Read and Rejuvenate. After the busyness of the growing season, it’s important to take some time for a pause. In an ideal world, with the plants going dormant, we would too! But I view this time from the holidays through mid-January as an opportunity to rest more, to read all of those books that I couldn’t get through during the growing season, to sip tea, to go to my dance classes, and to go inward. And to be perfectly honest, this pause is a hard one for me, but I’m trying to get better about it every year. Winter is for dreaming, planning and reflection and spring and summer is when we are in action. Being more conscious of the changing seasons and adjusting our expectations accordingly is what I wish our culture would do more.
2) I start organizing my seeds and my seed starting area. I also identify if I need to make any seed purchases and will do this by the end of January.
3) I map out the dates when I’ll be planting, both indoors and outside. I usually get a paper calendar and just write in what I’ll be seeding on what date. In this way, I have a visual of my entire planting season. Some people prefer to do this on a white board or in a digital calendar. I find that this frees up my mental energy so I’m not constantly thinking about when I will be planting what. If you don’t yet have my planting calendar, go here to download it and watch the video. This will give you a good starting point for your planning.
And that’s it. I keep it pretty simple in January, knowing that by mid-February, the whole process begins again!