I Can't Be Behind Already, Can I?

I heard on the KSL Greenhouse Show last Saturday that I should have already started onions for the year indoors. What? Behind already? I haven't even really started thinking about my garden for the summer, although I am done with snow now the holidays are over (I associate snow with Christmas and New Years, and once those two holidays pass some weird part of my brain thinks the snow should go away and we should just jump right into rain to get our gardens ready for spring). So I've started thinking about what I want to plant this summer.

I think I'll go with the usual tomatoes and peas and cucumbers, because I love those. And I think I will try pumpkins again. It's been a long time since we did those, although it won't be any of the giant varieties -- the two years I tried those they got verticillium wilt half-way through the season (or at least they seemed to). I will definitely plant onions, though. I've tried them on a small scale and had good luck with them. That means I've got to get my starts going now, evidently, so I don't end up with golf ball-sized onions. I have one new onion variety already in the ground: walking onions. My neighbor gave me a couple of bulbs to start, and when their stalks get tall they flop over, root, and form new onion bulbs. Cool, huh! And I am trying garlic this year too. Did you know there are hard stalk varieties and soft stalk varieties? That was news to me in the fall.

I am digging up my raspberries. They haven't produced well for several years now and are making good on their garden domination plans. I may put some starts somewhere else in the yard, just to see how they do. That will leave lots of room in the garden for trying some new things. Maybe I can really get a strawberry patch going. Finally. But what else to plant? And what will my family eat? And will I know how to preserve what grows?

If we are already at the end of January, though, that means I need to get serious about my garden plans because I like to start my own plants well ahead of time. And it also means I need to get serious about ordering new bees since I lost my hive last summer. I think I will go with Carniolans again this year. The next question is, from where to order? Hmmm. Bees bees bees. Peas peas peas. (That just sounded fun in my head).

Think think think.