The Start of Nothing

January's not the beginning for a gardener.

Years ago I was in Asheville with some girls for a getaway during the fall color season. We stopped in the French Broad Chocolate Lounge and one of us, who will remain nameless, said she would not partake because she was starting a diet. To which I replied, “You don’t start something on a Friday.”

She acquiesced to my bullying and ordered the drinking chocolate, quite agreeing in the end. A silly family mantra was born.

I feel exactly the same way about the “New Year.” You don’t start something in winter. Why do we force it?

The new year should start in April. Can we all agree? There’s nothing about January that feels bright and new, except of course when we get cheat days on end of 60-degree weather—and this year we have.

Years like this are fun in the garden. Everything I planted in early fall is thriving. I’m not starting anything new at all, but I am still harvesting things to eat, daily. It’s still hibernating, but with perks.

I’ll get my seed catalogs soon, and the plants I’m dreaming of will be back in stock.

But right now I’ll take the win that we are eating greens and herbs from the garden I planted last fall, and playing board games in our cozy room every night after dinner.