Januworry

I make an effort, a rather minor one, to keep the seed tray small. Catalogues aren't as exciting when there is no room to grow. This year, I focus. Brassicas for the fall in the garlic beds. Tomatoes, tossing out the less than stellar, trying new varieties. Herbs: cilantro, basil, fennel seed (yes!), and parsley. Snap peas and cucumbers in their place. One or two eggplant.

There is no room any longer for peppers in my life. Greens? Oh, I did buy some head-forming lettuce. Where will that go? And carrots? I know what I did wrong last year, but where? Oh, yes -the bed of weed garlic! That's where the carrots can go. Vineale is pulled in late spring.

Did I say focus? I bought 5 varieties of french filet beans. Why? Something or other about outdoing myself. I've always had success with bush beans, so when someone says that filet types are too much work, I need to see for myself. Three greens, one yellow, and one purple.

But where will they go?

The orchestration, the choreography, of a small plot is no small affair. It is a complex logistics dividing space and time, condition against condition. City gardeners know this, where limitations are posed by outlying parameters, not one's will to turn more and more soil.

The seed tray holds the future, but it is the worry of January.