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No, I'm not going crazy. Well at least I don't think so. But one of my favorite times of the year is here. Garden Planning and seed starting.
Living in zone 2-3 ish we don't have very many growing days. We don't warm up until close to the end of May and then we can get stupid cold as early as September. There are only few selective crops that actually grow in this area but they are among our favourites. These are Kale, spinach, lettuce, peas, beans(last year was a flop though), carrots, radishes, beets and potatoes. We will be growing all these again this year. As well as cucumbers, tomatoes, swiss chard, squash, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. We have apple trees, rhubarb, raspberries, saskatoons, currants, gooseberries and hopefully strawberries. We are going to plant pie pumpkins and looking into blueberries.
As homesteaders we have a goal for this years garden, to preserve the food we need to eat only from our "store" from the end of October to when the first harvest come off the soil in Late June. that means we will have a ton of work ahead of us. But not having to drive and hour into town every other week will be a huge savings for us. We already have our own eggs from our chickens and ducks. We process our own meat birds. We generally buy from a local farmer a half beef once a year for our freezer. We are hoping to get out fishing this coming year and bring home our own trout and salmon. That would be super amazing.
So even though it's crazy cold out there today and there is still lots of snow on the ground. I sit and plan my garden. I write out my schedule and I start to get my hands in the dirt. There is no better feeling then to sink your hands into nice warm moist dirt and then take a seed and prayerfully bury it in the depths of the soil in anticipation of the first sign of new life pushing it's way forward through the soil and into the light.
" And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." Isaiah 58:11