Yes, I know it is not quite mid January and I know that my spring won’t get here until mid to late May, but the winter solstice has been and gone. Every day now is going to be lighter for longer. Not warmer, as January, February and March are the coldest months, but lighter. It is time to bring out the seed catalogues and start some planting.

I will admit to already having two hollyhock plants in pots that I seeded in the fall. I wanted to find out if I would get flowers this year if I did it that way. I also have a rather leggy tomato plant that I didn’t seed. It grew all by itself in my pot of chives. Whatever, I will pot it out in spring and see what happens. Right now I am thinking of more hollyhocks, some lupin, pinks and petunias. Those are the things needing to be planted right now.

Maybe I should go look in the garage to see if I have any potting compost? It will need to be thawed if I have. If not, the stores are now absolutely guaranteed to have started pushing gardening stuff. I would take a bet on racks of seeds being on display today when we go shopping. I would also be astonished if bulbs were also not available to buy, despite the minor factoid that a person would need a backhoe to be able to plant anything right now.