Starting the new years' gardening calendar

It’s post-holidays which means the depth of the Persephone months in the Northern Hemisphere. According to Greek mythology, the goddess Persephone (daughter of Zeus & Demeter) lived underground 6 months of the year with her husband Hades and the remaining months on the earth. When she descends to the underworld, the seeds follow her into the ground for the winter, leaves fall from the trees, growth stops, crops die, and nothing bears fruit…nothing will reemerge until she does.

True to mythology, we witness the phenomenon of winter regardless of the temperature outside. Although the cold does have a huge impact on what will grow, hibernate or pass on, the reality is the plant world is completely dependent upon hours of daylight. During winter, the hours per day with direct sunlight diminishes and impacts the growth of plants. Those of us with cold frames will see even the hardiest of plants cease to grow further during these bleak days.

So what is a home gardener to do? Hibernate the months away? Certainly not! It is also the time of year that the postman brings, mixed in-between the post-holiday sale circulars, an abundance of seed catalogs! It is time to start thinking ahead what to plant and when.  This is the perfect time to plan!

I take my brand new calendar and mark out the following dates so they don’t get lost amid the frenzy of life: Date of last frost (http://www.almanac.com/content/frost-chart-united-states) preceded by 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks before that date. This helps me to remember to get those seedlings started and/or into the ground at the right time. The other date I put on there is the date of first frost again preceded by 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks before the first frost date so I can remember in the midst of summer’s abundant harvest to prepare for the fall and winter plantings.

This is a great way to start your New Year…with a freshly marked up gardening calendar!