January and February are the dreamer’s moments.

My dad began planning his spring garden in January, imagining how he wanted to place each crop based on the available space and what he was growing.

March is when we started planting most cold crops where we lived—like cabbage, radishes, and onions.

What are cold crops?

Cold crops are a whole category of edible plants that grow well in the cool weather months of spring and fall.

Think: leafy lettuces, cabbage, kale, collards, spinach, arugula, potatoes, onions, peas, carrots, swiss chard, beets, radishes, turnips, broccoli, and cauliflower. These plants are generally tolerant of frost… -Petittegardencenter.com

If you have a hot house or a nursery, you can get a head start with your seeds. Settles the gardening itch a little. It’s a thing, this itch.

Gardening is similar to sports. It’s addictive. That jogging high everyone talks about. Yeah, it’s real, but so is the gardening high. There’s a zen-like flow when you’re running your hands through the soil. You become one with nature. Potential growth and harvests fill you with energy, and it is so easy to get lost in the moment.

How to to add potential to your life

We can dream about our future, about the vacations we can take or the new adventures awaiting us. Planning life like a gardener would mean grabbing some maps and charting our travels to the destinations we want to explore. How long do we want to stay? Do we need to learn a new language? Will this require air travel or a car? Or maybe we want to try something different. We can visit local restaurants and rate them online. It’s fun to introduce ourselves to new foods and new people this way.

What is waiting for you this year?

Life is more than just a job. We quickly forget this soon after school. We worry about losing the pay that keeps our lights on overhead and the food in our kitchen. Yes, pay is essential. But the job will come. If we fail to live during these years, we will wake up to find we have no adventure, no stories, no real zest, just money.

Do you have your dream catalog?