What Gardeners Do In January

So what do Gardeners do in January? 20 things to do this month…

1. Unplug your outdoor holiday lights and your ready for next year. (Notice I didn’t say put them away)

2. Drink Martinis (nice warm drink) by the fireplace.

3. Put away holiday stuff. Keep out your gardening gifts all over the house.

4. Read gardening books and catalogs by the fireplace. Leave them out too. Your significant other will love you for this..

5. Watch weather (say isn’t that a cloud-oooh I think it looks like a pumpkin up there-do you see it?)

6. Make snow vegetables instead of a snowman. See if your neighbors can tell what they are..

7. Ogle seed catalogs (by the fireplace). Put stickies all over them.

8. Take dog for a drag (they don’t like to walk in snow).

9. Order more seeds (by the fireplace). As if we don’t have enough.

10. Guess how high your utility bill will be this month. Sit by the fireplace more and turn the thermostat down.

11. Get lots of firewood inside before that next storm. Buy green firewood-lasts longer..

12. Find your growing light boxes (or make them if you haven’t). Use full spectrum fluorescent lights instead of grow lights. Same difference and much cheaper. Drag them inside this month to set up and freak out your significant other.

13. Shovel snow outside (getting in shape for spading next Spring-notice I said getting).

14. Get heating mats for your grow boxes-a must have if you start seeds indoors. Nice to sit on too.

15. Layout next year’s garden on your computer (by the fireplace). I use GrowVeg.com. Really fun. Free for the first 30 days and then you can pay if you like it (not much-small price to pay for so much fun)

16. Insulate your grow boxes so they don’t loose so much heat at night inside. I buy a roll of metallic bubble wrap and wrap it around all 4 sides (one side removable in front so I can get to the plants) and a section for the top that I completely remove in the day and lay back on at night. Wrap your dog or cat in the leftover metallic wrap-you’ll enjoy it-they won’t.

17. Schedule when each veggie can go out (by the fireplace). I use a garden planner from a wonderful blog-Skippy’s Vegetable garden. How’s that for obsessive? Hey you gotta do something inside all those months!

18. Thank your significant other for putting up with your obsession. They might be ok with next growing season (hey at least try)

19. Toss that plant you didn’t plant outside and didn’t have the heart to get rid of last fall that is now full of aphids. (where do they come from anyways?)

20. Make your significant other read your blog. (As if they don’t put up with enough gardening stuff)

BONUS: Look up more gardening/pumpkin info on line. I call it gardening/pumpkin porn. (hey you gotta research this stuff, right?)