Thursday, December 29, 2022
First Quarter Moon Waxing in Aries
Uranus, Mars, Mercury Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Birch
Partly Sunny and Mild
Sorry for the missed weeks. Without a working computer at home that could access the internet, I was limited in what I could do, and my time working on the library’s computers were also limited.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend, and are looking forward to the new year.
Some people hate the “Betweenmas” week. I fluctuate – at times I love it, at times I get impatient.
I’m going through the seed catalogues as they come in, dreaming overly ambitious dreams for next year’s growing season. I make a chart (yes, I know I could use Excel, but I hate Excel) with the seed company, the seeds I want, the price. This way, I can compare/contrast prices and varieties.
Then, I have to winnow it down for space and budget. I have limited space in the enclosed front porch and on the back balcony, and I have zealous squirrels out on the balcony.
The tomato plant that was doing so well around Thanksgiving gave up. I couldn’t give it the light and warmth it needed to generate tomatoes by Christmas. Also, no bees around for pollination had something to do with it.
Some of the bulbs are poking tiny green heads up, so we might have early tulips, hyacinths, and miniature daffodils. If that’s the case, we will enjoy them while we have them.
But our other plants are doing well. The night-blooming jasmine is gigantic. The peace lily is slowly coming back to health. The other plants are fine, and we’re coaxing them along. The snapdragon is supposedly an annual, but no one told it, so it’s growing along, which is great. I would love it if it would be hearty enough to bloom this year.
At this point, I’m not planning to plant vegetables. I’m going to focus on flowers and herbs. I want to add some more medicinal herbs into the mix.
I have the big binder for the past year’s notes, and I will move a bunch of 2022 notes over, and then set up the smaller binder for this year’s planting and tracking.
This is one of my favorite times of the growing year: sitting with the catalogues, spinning big dreams. It also gives me a chance to plan gardens for my fiction. The catalogues give me ideas, and instead of throwing them out, I put them in a file and refer to them when I need to create gardens in fiction.
Planning fantasy gardens can be even more fun than planning real ones!
How are your various gardens, both internal and external, growing?
Happy New Year, my friends. Peace, rich soil, and abundant harvest to you.
Gratitude and Growth: A Garden Journal 
Dec 29, 2022 @ 17:13:24
I planted seeds in my grow-light. I planted sage, chives, rosemary, 2 chervil, and dill. Only the two chervils and the dill grew. I’ll contact the company to send me replacements for the others. I have already used and dried chervil and dill.
Jan 05, 2023 @ 12:46:02
I think I might need to get a grow light. I didn’t know seed companies sent replacements for seeds that didn’t come up. That’s good to know!