Time to plan spring planting

I hate the cold, cold weather we had over the weekend.

The water pipes in my torn-up kitchen froze up along with the drains. I told Tom this is the last year I am putting up with this craziness. My patience has run out. I did have running water in the basement and the bathroom sink, so I wasn't without water entirely, but I couldn't do dishes. There is a large pile of dishes to wash and the pile keeps getting bigger.

Oh, Tom just called me while I am writing this on Tuesday afternoon. He told me that he had gotten the water thawed out and was slowly getting through the huge pile of dishes. Unfortunately, while he was thawing the water out, the hot water came on while he was outdoors and the drain in the bathtub was still frozen. The bathtub overflowed.

It has been one of those weeks when everything seems to be going wrong. I broke off a piece on my computer that connects the printer, so now my printer doesn't work. Because I couldn't work on my computer or do dishes, I decided to do my pilate work out.

The DVD player wouldn't turn on at all. My daughter, Mary says I probably need a new DVD player because we live in such an old house, dust must have gotten into the machine. I have been spending a lot of time working on modern conveniences that are not making my life convenient at all.

Because it was so cold last weekend, I spent Saturday evening pouring over seed catalogs to boost my dismal mood. I have to be careful I don't go overboard in ordering too many seeds. All the colorful plants look so wonderful in the catalogs.

I became uplifted for a little while thinking that the frozen ground outdoors really will thaw out in the next couple of months for planting. I underlined the seeds and plants I plan to order from the different catalogs. From my experience with last summer's garden, I know that if I want to buy certain seeds or plants from the seed companies, I have to order them soon or they will be all sold out .

Last year I wanted to buy a tomato called Tangerine Sweet from Burpee's Seeds. It is described as generously golden and astonishingly sweet and ripens in 68 days. I called Burpee's Seed Company in late March and this tomato seed was all sold out. I am going to order Tangerine Sweet Tomato this week to make sure I have it for summer planting.

I ordered garlic last fall, but I ordered it too late to plant it in the ground. I saved all the garlic bulbs and will plant them this spring as soon as the ground thaws.

It probably is good that I am waiting to plant the garlic bulbs until spring, because last spring the garlic I planted in the fall, Tom accidentally tilled it all up when he went to till the garden for spring planting. There went my garlic and hard work.

So right now, I am dreaming of warmer weather, planting and machines that work properly. January often seems as if it is the longest month of the year with its cold, cold temperatures. Tom says he hates January, but at least February is a shorter month. I better order those seeds soon.