As I sit here and enjoy the cooler, less humid temps of fall I find that instead of relaxing and enjoying them, my mind is in full throttle planning NEXT year's garden. I am thinking about what changes I need (want, ok, NEED) to make. Thinking about what I'd love to add and what I'd love to just yank out! I start scouting for jugs. (which is really a quite unusual hobby isn't it? We won't talk about the midnight drives quite yet.. don't want to scare off the newbies! LoL) My fingers are feeling almost itchy as I can hardly wait to start filling those jugs with soil and planting the flowers and shrubbery and even tomatoes for next year.

I tell myself I will start with just 25 jugs this year, no, maybe 50, no, no, might as well just make it 75 jugs.(or maybe just an even 100...because I just LIKE even numbers...) I begin sorting my pile of seeds that I want to wintersow and I feel slightly panicky as I see the mound growing and growing taller and wider. (ok, ok I feel EXCITED, not panicky!!) I find myself smiling like I have a secret I'm bursting to tell. Then, I start checking out the favorite seed sites. Then, the exchange forums. The trade envys start to come in alongside the orders I just *HAD* to place for *just ONE more...* And week after week that pile gets larger and wider. And you know what? My smile gets even bigger!

I carefully find a nice, sheltered spot to aptly name the "plant ghetto." I've learned the front yard is not the best spot for the ghetto as I was ticketed my first year for that very reason! As the season progresses and it grows colder and my need grows I start checking the jugs more often. I see neighbors wave as they walk by and then shake their heads at my 'strangeness'. I'm often surprised they know me by face since, more often than not, it is most likely my rear end that greets them as I am, more often than not, bending or squatting in my garden on such a continual basis! :)

The need grows and I peek into the jugs more often hoping to see green. My heart quickens when I think I spot it.. but then realize it's just a piece of that darn white perlite that has taken on a nice hue of 'green' instead!

Then, inevitably, that special day arrives. Numerous squats and peeks reward me with that first little sign of life (and somewhat toned leg muscles...) "I see GREEN!! I see GREEN!!" I squeal out. My kids will mutter things like, "Crazy plant lady!" I just nod my head happily. Happy they even took their sweet lil noses out of their phones long enough to notice my so-called crazy plant lady antics at all. Often there's a little 'happy dance' that will play itself out, at which point my kids are mortified beyond repair and quickly run back into the house. (they're teenagers--need I say more?)

Once that first initial sight of green greets my eyes I am out there daily, hoping for the next jug that sprouts, and then the next. Rearranging the ghetto to highlight the survivors and the ones I'm still waiting on to show signs of life...

Oh, this is definitely an addiction and one that I am so thrilled to have found. It is an addiction I willingly share with others. So, short of wearing a trench coat that I might spread wide to showcase all the seed packets I have available and whispering to you so that we don't get caught making this exchange... I will instead invite you over to the Winter Sowing Exchange Forum and ask YOU to come and share in my addiction and share your own little packets with all that want to join in.

Let's enable our fellow seed addicts with the thrill of Winter Sowing! Newbies and Experienced members are welcome! Head on over to the Winter Sowing Exchange Forum to sign up on the thread titled ~*~ WinterSwap 2011 ~*~ at the link found below:

C'mon... you KNOW you want to!

~Wendy / Sassyb. / AKA this year's enabler

Here is a link that might be useful: WinterSwap 2011