Feet in the Snow, Heart Dreaming of Gardens

I always wait for the snow in January to begin planning my garden. For years, this meant gathering my catalogs, shucking on my winter gear, and braving the snow-covered roads to meet my uncle for coffee, doughnuts, and conversation about what we were going to plant this year. He recently hung up his shovel and rake,  passed on his secrets and some gardening tools to me, and is enjoying retirement from the garden. After a lifetime of some eighty years, tilling the earth, planting the seeds, and tending the small new plants as they grow, he deserves to be able to sit back now and just let others do the dirty work. 

Last night it snowed. I woke up to a winter wonderland, the kind that dreams are born of. This time though, I have my coffee and my cats while my little son sleeps warm and snug in his bedroom. Instead of catalogs, I am armed with my Pinterest board. 

This year, I am whittling down my garden a tad, which seems contrary to my goal of seeing my own food chain and practicing some self-sufficiency. I am trying to however, be realistic, and grow what I need, with maybe a little extra. I don't think that this year I can start many of my own seeds. I also want to make good choices, and utilize all that I grow. I already have talks of a family and friend veggie co-op in the works to trade extra harvests and possibly even homemade food items, like canned veggies, dehydrated fruit, jams, and bread. This year, I want to be more mindful of what I am planting, and why, instead of being the kid in the candy shop who wants it all.

So this year, I am keeping it more simple. 

Herbs for sure. Potatoes, butternut squash that runs the length of our fence line and down the alley of our neighborhood, and the neighbors can keep what grows on their fences. Pumpkins. Peanuts. Kale for my little second cousins' bunnies. Sugar snap peas, because I love them. Cucumber, and a salad garden. Green beans on a trellis. A few tomato plants because no matter how hard I try I can't grow a decent tomato. Garlic and chives, because chives look so pretty and purple fluffy. Carrots grown alone, in fine dirt that allows them to grow big and strong. And flowers - lots of flowers. 

I want a bench added this year too. One where my uncle can sit, holding my son, and enjoying the warmth of the summer sun. 

If I close my eyes, I can picture it perfectly.

How about you? Any plans for gardens in your future?