January Gardening

It's January.  January is a difficult month for gardeners, or so I've read on various blogs around the interwebs.  The bulbs are planted, and for those in snow-covered areas, are mostly forgotten as they wend their way toward the sunlight underneath mounds of snow. Those gardeners spend January leafing through seed catalogs and mentally preparing themselves for starting seeds in musty basements or cold windowsills.   I'm starting to believe that gardeners in California run into a far more difficult and less predictable quandary these weeks after the holidays.

It feels like spring. 

It looks like spring. 

I desperately want it to be spring.  Weeds are making the hillsides a delicious shade of green due to our recent rains and the daffodils I didn't dig up and replant are reaching respectable heights while the new bulbs are still sleeping under the soil.  Several rose bushes are blooming and  the soil seems to call to me to plant. Should I weed the area around my irises and plant a wildflower mix from 1999 I recently discovered?  Should I break down and walk down the aisles of Lowe's or the local garden center and buy whatever catches my fancy?  Should I start seeds inside to make sure they come up and can be transplanted safely?  Should I sow wild and think and hope that a good portion come up or carefully plan?  

The prednisone makes my brain go a bit nutty---I can think of a million things I ought to be doing right now---an hour practicing Spanish with Rosetta stone, cleaning my room, doing my reading for my grad school class tomorrow....but all I *want* to do is think about my garden, to plan and dream of a lovely spring and summer.