Christmas is over, now a long winter of garden dreaming begins

Christmas Dinner

Another milestone toward the beginning of next year's garden season is past: Christmas. This means the official start to the long winter of sitting inside, reading garden books and plant catalogs, planning how to improve my gardens in 2014, and just plain dreaming of a warm, early spring.

Planning for Christmas usually takes most of my mental energy, cleaning, buying presents and food and getting ready to have family over for two days of eating, going to the children's Christmas pageant at church, Christmas day musical concert and of course, Christmas dinner. This year's dinner went fairly well:

• Herb-roasted rack of lamb (from our own lambs; I had never made a rack before)
• roasted root veg and onions
• Brussels sprouts with bacon and garlic
• "Perfect Harvest" salad kit with blue cheese crumbles
• cranberry-pomegranate gelatin mold (my own natural recipe) with mandarin oranges
• too many Christmas cookies for dessert

I spent today cleaning up and putting things away. But now my energies will turn to thinking about my gardens. I wish I could wait another month or two like I used to before gardening became such a serious hobby, but unfortunately, it now seems like the day after Christmas, my thoughts invariably turn to "how to make my gardens better." "What will I do this year?"

I'll read as many gardening books as I can over the next few months -- and I'll try to review them here as well.

Here's to a long winter ahead!