Spring in Winter

Its snowing,and its cold. But, the days are getting longer, and its time to think about greens, and flowers, and all things that grow, and the smell of the earth, and the sounds of the spring peepers. First things first, we take a seed inventory. Some seeds can be carried from year to year, but others not. Onions, and the allium family don't carry, but peppers and tomatoes do. So we look through all the old seed packets, count seeds, look at expiration dates on packages, and make lists.
We have garden notebooks going back to 1977. Way back then we'd make beautiful colored diagrams. Now we make lists. Still beautiful, but not as colorful .
This afternoon we'll pull out the catalogs. Johnny's seeds in Maine, and Fedco Seeds also in Maine are our main seed suppliers. We'll have to jog our memories. That beautiful red lettuce, Marimba, didn't size up , and bolted too soon. Is there another vibrant red lettuce to use? We'll stick with ace peppers as our tried and true, but should we really put in any yellow peppers ( their yields are always low)? And Leeks... is this the year to just put in a short row for us and skip selling them? Even though we don't sell flowers, we grow hundreds of them both as annuals and perennials. Just thinking about them makes me smile... the annual flax with those impossible blue flowers, the smell of the evening phlox,and the zinnia's, so beautiful!
Today we'll immerse ourselves in all things spring. Tomorrow we'll shovel.