Vicki Doudera – Realtor, Author, Mainer

Dead of winter in Maine and that can  only mean one thing… time to get out the seed catalogs and start dreaming of the garden.

My Johnny’s Selected Seeds (a Maine company) came last week so the timing is perfect. Here’s what I do: start a fire in the living room woodstove. Get my list of what I bought last year and any left over seeds. Pour a glass of wine or a cup of tea (depending on mood and time of day) and start making some notes.

I think about the things we didn’t plant and wish we had (carrots, kale, swiss chard) and the things we planted that didn’t really work. For instance, the peas took up alot of valuable garden real estate (primo location by the fence) and didn’t do much of anything. Do I try them again? Try the variety that is “innoculated” this time? It was kind of fun to plant them because they go into the ground so early (Easter) but it was disappointing to only harvest a handful…

Lexi and I are making another small bed this year which will be solely for lettuces and other leafy things since the zucchini kind of bulldozed their way over those crops. (Yes, I will plant less zucchini this year!) And I am going to look for another type of cucumber as the one we planted didn’t do much.

Ahh… the winter garden dreaming. So rewarding and your hands don’t even get dirty!