JILL SEVERN'S GARDENING COLUMN

January

'This is the month when the holidays quickly retreat from view, and the prospect of a long winter sets in.' 

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The sign in front of Luck Dental Center says, “January is like a Monday only longer.”  

Rachel Feintzeig goes even further; in a guest column in The New York Times, she nominates January as the worst month of the year.  

“In January, you’re staring down 31 bleak days, the legal limit,” she writes. February, she notes, will be dismal too, but at least it only has 28 days. 

This is the month when the holidays quickly retreat from view, and the prospect of a long winter sets in. 

Not everyone thinks it is terrible. I know some people really come alive snowboarding down snowy mountains this month. They find freezing wind on their faces invigorating.  

Others say they love our gray skies, and the cloak of more hours of darkness. But when questioned, even the pro-January people dislike at least one of the three things that make other people like it: cold air, gray skies, or more darkness. 

Most people find a plain, static gray sky depressing. They are less morose when clouds are in motion, shape-shifting and snuggling and parting, and occasionally giving the sun the right of way.  

Traveling clouds and a light wind can be live-action sky painting – inspiring if you’re indoors looking out a window, but outdoors, only in a warm jacket, hat and gloves. 

Honestly, it’s been shocking to feel the temperature drop this week. Even though it’s exactly what we expected, the sensory experience of walking out the door is, to put a positive spin on it, bracing.  

It’s an intense awareness of every square inch of skin that isn’t covered, from ears to toes – and I include toes because I saw someone downtown wearing sandals (without even socks!) this week. 

At this point, the best response to winter weather is to get used to it. After a just a handful of days, the face-slap of cold air will feel normal – possibly even invigorating if the rest of you is dressed for the weather.  

To cope with this frigid month, we may wish for “acceptance and commitment therapy,” which Psychology Today says helps “Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives.” 

So yes, we can complain about January while also accepting it. It’s the emotional equivalent of being able to walk and chew gum at the same time.  

We can also take heart from the fact that it’s already more than half over. And it does come with an antidote of occasional dazzling sunny spells, which may last minutes or days. When the sun comes out, hope for spring is reborn and gardens beckon.  

Even now, our gardens need us. In January, spring bulbs – early crocus and snowdrops, tulips, daffodils, and bluebells – are coming up. These are winter growers – they have to be, to get ready to bloom in the spring.  

They don’t mind the cold, but they do mind being smothered under last year’s spent foliage and dead leaves.  

We’ve been told in the past few years to leave our gardens alone in the winter. To promote biodiversity, we’re supposed to leave all the fallen-over perennials, the dead annuals and the rotting leaves until spring, so they can provide habitat for insects, bugs, worms, soil organisms and birds. But where there are bulbs, compromises must be made; spent plants must be cut back now. 

There are indoor garden chores too. A neighbor told me about a new Burpee squash variety that grows upright on a strong, 4-foot stem. I looked it up online and spent the next hour browsing the Burpee website and ordering a paper catalogue for bedtime reading.  

A person could spend the rest of January reading garden catalogues and ordering seeds, including the ones for tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers that will need to be started indoors in just a few weeks. That time may sneak up on us. 

Like a 13th century Sufi poet said, perhaps in January, “this too shall pass.”  

Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at  jill@theJOLTnews.com

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  • GinnyAnn

    In mid-winter here in the PNW, I'm grateful that I live here instead of in those parts of the country where the snow covers the tops of cars. Gardening in my jeans and jacket beats shoveling snow or putting on snow chains. I still have cyclamen blooming in my backyard to brighten my days as I wait for full spring.

    Saturday, January 18 Report this

  • joycetogden

    According to the official weather people, our "Winter rains" are half over by January 1.

    And the bulbs are starting to check out what life is like above-ground.

    But so are the Pepper cress "shotweeds" Folks in upstate New York where I came from don't look at weeds until July and can't fathom why we meticulous gardeners in Olympia are out on a clear day with a kitchen fork on our hands and knees prying them out.

    Saturday, January 18 Report this