We were good over Christmas. As a family, we kept the vow to reduce wrapping paper, buy less, and consume less. As a result, trash day at our home had the average volume, or maybe less—no highest volume of the year due to cardboard, plastic, and wrapping paper. As we all know corporations are involved in diabolical plots to choke the planet with clamshell plastic packaging.
My wife, however, insisted that I did not have enough tools in the eight-by-ten greenhouse/shop, which has been past its limit on devices for a few years. I noted that most of the stuff from Lee-Valley seemed to come in cardboard that went right into the recycle. Somebody in Ottawa must be listening to our requests for recyclable packaging.
January is a time for tool companies to send flyers, catalogs, and junk emails. Having behaved for the holidays, they now seek a reversal of my vows to be good and get me to spend on more tools and clamshell packaging. I have a strategy to fight this; all tool company catalogs and flyers are automatically put into recycling. I don’t even look at the covers. Likewise, all emails from tool vendors have been flagged as junk and consigned to the trash bin automatically.
There is a certain amount of warmth of feeling, and yes, I feel vindicated and superior about this. I have behaved in the face of great temptation.
But the seed catalogs are arriving, and I feel my seed lust growing. Will there be room in the garden for the new varieties of tomatoes I want to grow?
Oh no … there seems to be no limit when it comes to seeds and gardening. Spring is coming.
I admit it. I’ve already planted a little planter of herbs. I somehow think that we’ll go right from winter to a rainy spring this year, without a sugaring season to make maple syrup.
Well, you and me both. I have basils by the window and with the help of grow light. Garlic is growing in the garden. Hoping for less rain in spring. Last year, garlics rotted.
Garlic…the gardener’s annual dance with rain, sun and chance. I had great garlic to harvest, but got next years in late. But every year is a great and unique adventure.