January Update

It's been a while, of course.

This winter has been so warm.  I've been running outside. I work nights, which is weird. I may be moving in August.

All are reasonable excuses to why I have not been blogging for a while.  The garden is in limbo due to the moving part. It's hard to get terribly invested in it when I may be missing out on one of the most productive months of the year for me. The hubby is looking at an art school in downtown Philadelphia, so we may be packing our bags and heading out. That leaves me with all of the other things to think about BESIDES gardening... (where will we live, I'll need a PA nursing license, I'll need a PA nursing JOB...)

We visited the school on my 25th birthday.  My first reaction was that I was getting cancer from the lack of GREEN in the city. Granted, it was January, but there is next to nowhere for even a patch of grass.  I claim that I "live in St. Louis", but the bulk of the St. Louis population lives outside of the city in the 45 minute straight sprawl of suburbia, me included.  When we lived in Lebanon, PA, I could readily smell horse manure several months of the year just by walking outside, and though I love my garden, I proclaimed myself a "city girl". This is going to be a whole different ballgame. We had lunch with a close friend, and it helped to take away some of that instant culture shock. That is mainly where my mind is right now. We're praying for a scholarship opportunity to come through, so the decision hasn't been made, but once it has, it means packing up a house we've lived in for three and a half years for quite a big move.

I did get some new Aerogarden bulbs. So I do have some things growing right now. (This may be my only "garden" besides containers or a *rooftop garden* fingers crossed on that one if we move to Philly)

This is from January 11, when we returned from PA. I had to do lots of thinning. Most of my seeds were old, but they had only just begun to sprout when we left.

This is 12 days later, from today, January 23.

I've got three buttercrunch lettuces, two red sails (Thanks Daphne!), black seeded simpson, and little caesar. We'll be having salad in the near future!

My broccoli will be planted this week, but I'm nowhere near ready. This year it feels like I just finished cleaning up. We just threw out the last of our ripening green tomatoes, and bought our first store bought tomatoes since September. 

Our average high temperature in St. Louis throughout this December was somewhere in the low 50s. Nowhere cold enough to keep me inside, so I haven't been having that cabin fever issue which normally lends itself to massive garden planning. I've got seeds to order, and I've only just begun to peruse the catalogs. 

My church has begun some thinking on creating a community garden that we'll donate the harvests, and have asked me to be a part of that. I'm incredibly excited, and I think that the planning for that will take up more of my time. I'm off to run, and then hopefully to get a nap before my first of three night shifts this week. Happy Gardening to all!