The weather New Year’s Day was as it should be, bright and cold with plenty of snow on the ground. We had more snow here in the last week of December than we had all last winter. As much as I think we all enjoyed the break from shoveling last year, it just didn’t seem right. So there’s something reassuring about some proper winter weather.
The garden is buried under a thick blanket of snow, so the only gardening I’m doing is at home, with a notebook and a pile of seed catalogs. Before I even peeked at the catalogs I went through my supply of seeds, and from the looks of it it seemed like I wouldn’t really need to be ordering much. But I have a wishlist two pages long from the Fedco catalog alone! Now I need to figure out how it will all fit and narrow down my choices.
Before I started gardening I always found January to be unbearable. It always just seemed like spring was never going to come. But now planning the garden, counting out the weeks on the calendar to figure out when to start seeds makes the winter go by so much more quickly. January has started to feel a lot less bleak.
So tell me, anything special you’re looking forward to growing this year?
forgottenpickles.com 
With all the snow on the ground and the bitter cold of the last few days, it is indeed nice to look ahead to starting seeds.
lovely photos, I havent got my head round what to sow and grow this year, like you I need to go through my seed stash first!!
i just ordered a whole pile of seeds – seemed the perfect antidote to looking at my garden buried under tons of snow! A question – how long can you keep seeds for? All of the packages say to plant in a specific year, but I’ve wondered (I’m new to gardening!) how long you can really keep them for. Thoughts? thanks!
Most seeds will last for at least a couple of years if they are stored properly. Some seeds (like onions) are pretty short lived, but most others will keep for anywhere from 2 to 5 years. There’s a lot of helpful information here:
http://awaytogarden.com/estimating-viability-how-long-do-seeds-last
Thanks very much!
One of my favorite parts of gardening is looking through the seed catalogues and dreaming about spring.
Beautiful photos! Yeah spring is coming!