Anticipating the Growing Season

It is early February in north Georgia. The air is cool…and crisp.

A little too crisp if you ask me.  I know my northern friends will laugh at me and tell me to toughen up.  My boys and husband even tell me it’s not cold but for a Caribbean born woman I like my weather on the warmer side. 

Like Goldilocks with her porridge…not too hot and not too cold…just right!

During the winter months I don’t enjoy going out much. 

I go out because I have to. 

My poor husband.  He LOVES the cold weather and probably would be living up north if it wasn’t for his cold-avoidant wife.

Now that it’s February, warmer weather is on the horizon and so is the growing season. I’m anticipating both because this girl isn’t planting anything in the dead of winter. 

I believe in taking periods of rest and my period of rest from garden work just so happens to be in the colder months.  Coincidence?  No. I don’t believe in coincidences. It was planned…I just don’t like the cold.

So being cooped up got me thinking about warmer weather and growing food I don’t have to purchase in the store. 

Since planting season is close I have a strong desire to start growing vegetables in my garden. 

A strong desire.

I looked at both the UGA extension’s planting guide and the Farmer’s Almanac for my area trying to figure out when to plant cool season vegetables…especially my beloved snow peas!  However, they both have varying start dates for planting seeds directly in the ground.  Ugh!  What’s a girl to do? 

So I waited and waited to catch a time that is in between the two.  I may have waited too long because today, as I am writing this post, I am sick.  Too sick to go out in the cold. 

I have a little trouble breathing with the congestion and the last thing anyone should do when they’re sick is do strenuous labor (yes gardening can be strenuous…lifting numerous bags of dirt, pulling old plants that you didn’t pull in the fall, mixing fertilizer into the dirt, etc).

Prior to being sick, I had an idea to use old seeds instead of the new ones I’d bought earlier in the year and that got me excited! I thought could satisfy the desire to plant something and if the freeze got them I still have the new seeds. Plus we bought my mother-in-love a watering system for the pots where the snow peas will go so that’s another reason why I want to get planting. 

So alas…I have to wait just a little bit more before I can get out in the garden.  I have to feel better.

In the meantime, I am going to start gathering all my materials together so when I do feel better I can pounce on the opportunity to get out there and plant something.

I know I said I don’t like the cold and I don’t grow anything in the dead of winter but cool season crops need to go in the ground around this time to harvest in spring…so I’ll make an exception.

Meanwhile, as I am waiting to get my hands in the dirt I am writing a post with a list of cool season crops so you can also prepare for the growing season. 

Here’s to anticipating the growing season together!