Over Christmas I read Gretchen Rubin’s “The Happiness Project”. The book was well-researched and easy to read, and I was entertained by her method of giving herself a gold star every day that she managed to stick to her Happiness Project resolutions. Although the gold star method wouldn’t work for me, I really liked the”Secrets to Adulthood” that she developed during the course of the project. Some of these include “What you do every day matters more than what you do once in awhile“,  “it’s okay to ask for help” and “what’s fun for other people may not be fun for you – and vice versa“.  In my opinion, these apply just as well to gardening as well as to adulthood.

Here are a few other “secrets to gardening” that I am going to try to keep in mind this year:

• Wear sunscreen even when it is not sunny.
• Remove weeds when they are small. 
• If you don’t make a decision, nature sometimes makes a decision for you and it isn’t always what you would have wanted.
• Don’t plant things too close together. 
• Leave “underplanting” and “overplanting” for the experts. 
• Try not to move plants that are thriving where they are. 
• Problem trees only get larger. 

After a long break from the garden, I’ve finally started to do a little bit of weeding and clean-up. The snowdrops have started to bloom as well as the miniature iris, cyclamen and and daphne. Crocus and tulips are starting to sprout all over the garden.

The vegetable garden is a mess and I am pulling up the plants that froze/rotted over the winter. While the old kale survived, there are only a few leaves left at the top of each plant, so I am going to let them grow a little longer to see if they get any larger before I pull them up.  They are currently located in the bed that will be planted with potatoes this spring.

Now is the time to plan (not plant) the spring and summer garden and to order seeds. In February, fava beans, peas and poppy seeds can be planted so I want to get ready for that. I still haven’t moved the plum tree and part of me is very reluctant to do so, in case I damage the roots.

Okay, must go cook dinner…