Think Spring. But You Don't Have to Plant yet.

The carrots are dormant.  

The garden and field are an inch under water.

Spring is coming. Really.

The chickens have abandoned the coop and I can't find their new nest.

A little bit of sunny, warm weather last week almost made me crawl out of my den, but the sun scared me back in.  Don't be surprised if we have four more weeks, or months, of winter.

Vegetable selection in the garden this year is shifting noticeably.  I could pretend it's proper crop rotation and that's true, but here are the real reasons:

• Bugs and thieves really like tomatoes.
• I don't like processing tomatoes.
• Thieves really like watermelons too.
• Bugs love squash.  Hey, somebody must love it, right?  Bugs.  Squash bugs.  And squash borers.  Try to think of some boring jokes and imagine them here.

It is time to...
plan the garden, if you haven't yet.  There is plenty of time to plan it still.  Don't be intimidated by the early birds posting pictures of the seeds they started indoors.  Those pictures are from last year.  Maybe two or three years ago.  For real, nobody has trays of four inch pepper plants ready to plant right now.  Why would they?  If they plant peppers now, the plants will freeze.  Nor will the plants thrive in dixie cups and egg cartons long enough to wait out the frost date.  That's the beauty of marketing.  One good basil picture is all you'll need in a lifetime.  Reduce.  Reuse. Recycle. Digitally.

Start saving your egg cartons, styrofoam cups, soup cans, whatever you are going to plant your seeds in.  Then start to browse the web and magazines and dare I say it...seed catalogs.  Spring is coming. 

Think Spring.  But you don't have to plant yet.