My plans to travel with the Sweetheart to visit his family were canceled, and tentative plans for the eldest and her husband to visit were now up in the air. Luckily, my case was mild, but it made for a very quiet Christmas, nonetheless.

I got my two negative test results within 48 hours just in time for my eldest and her hubby to come down from Buffalo. (Yes, that Buffalo. Thankfully the kids were in Syracuse visiting family and missed that horrible blizzard. It was truly tragic.) They joined the boys and me for a late Christmas and some riotous celebrating and overeating.  

Now that the holidays are firmly behind us, and I’m down to finding two Nerf darts a day around the house, it’s started – the January itch.

As a fellow gardener, I’m sure you know exactly what I’m referring to. It starts with that first seed catalog that shows up right before Christmas. “Too early! What are they thinking?” you wonder as you toss it on “the pile” and get back to the craziness of the season at hand. But it’s too late; the seed is planted.

Later in the holiday, that moment comes after the presents have been unwrapped, the kids’ energy has finally petered out, and you’re all pleasantly full.  

You’re only half-watching the movie with everyone in the living room as you nudge the tray of cookies out of the way (the mere sight of them makes you queasy) and absent-mindedly grab a seed catalog from the pile on the coffee table.

Hmm, those are some nice-looking peppers. Didn’t we say we would grow the cabbages under row covers this year? And the tomatoes, there was something about moving the tomatoes.

Before you know it, you’re standing at the window, wine glass in hand, looking at your empty garden with a far-away expression. Not unlike Clark Griswold dreaming of his backyard pool. Although, you probably don’t have any underwear models in red swimsuits in your garden.  

More seed catalogs show up in your mailbox, and you can’t help but look at them now. After all, you’ve made a resolution to lose eighty-five pounds by April 1st, and you resolved to start eating kale salads at every meal this year.

It’s bizarre. I see it happen among my gardening friends every year. It’s like that space following the holidays is begging to be filled with something, and our brains latch on to gardening. Logically, we know the start of the season is still months away. Heck, Phil is still sound asleep in his hole. He hasn’t even thought about waking to give us a guess as to whether or not we’ll have an early spring. But in our heads, we’re off to the races anyway.  

Dig out your garden notes from last year and start making plans. Sure, we’ve got weeks to go before planting things outside, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start planning inside.

Spend some time researching pests you struggled with last year. Start looking for a local nursery that carries native species for your landscaping. Go through your seed library and list the seeds you need to replace. Figure out when you need to start seeds indoors. Pick out a new paste tomato variety; that one from last year was much too bland.

Now is the perfect time to do all that gardening-related reading and planning we’re all too busy to do during the fine weather. Hey, I hear Rural Sprout is a pretty good resource for stuff like that.