I hope you had a really happy holiday season and a break from your normal routines to enjoy family and friends.
If you thought the weather was strange in December, so did I. I covered my lettuce and spinach beds with row covers in mid-November. Then, surprisingly, I picked fresh greens on Christmas Eve, getting enough for a nice salad. Strange times indeed.
I'm ordering some seeds this month, as I've had some difficulty finding what I want locally. That means I'll be having to start my own transplants for next year.
Timing these for the proper planting dates can be a challenge. USU Extension has some great fact sheets on growing, caring for, and starting transplants.
I've also inventoried most of my seeds, and I know what I need to buy or replace for the next growing season. My garden is cleaned up (thank you, December weather), manured (thank you, Nate's goats), and the are for early planting has been dug over (thanks to me).
I'm in the process of building a cold frame to go over that early planting area. I have the map laid out on paper and I have the supplies. This should allow me to plant early greens in mid-March. So this month, I'm building a frame.
It will go over an area of about 15 square feet, which will supply us nicely with lettuce, spinach, radishes, mustards, and other salad crops. Some of these will be transplanted, some of them will be seeded.
I'll also be starting Brussels sprout transplants in mid-February for a mid-April planting date. I'll wait until March to start some of the others.
Until then, I'm reading some good books, getting some exercise, and taking it a little easy.