Happy New Year, you guys. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that you've joined me today as we begin our sixth season of the Beginners Garden podcast.

I have got some awesome podcast episodes in store for you, especially this month in January. You're going to be getting podcast episodes not only every Tuesday, but also a shorter

version on Fridays as well. I just really want this month to serve as inspiration for you.

I want to give you some tools with some things that you can be doing now, but also give you

some ideas of things you might want to look into and consider as you start beginning

your garden planning in the future. And with that in mind, today I'm going to talk about some

things that you can be doing right now. I know for me, I want to strike a balance in January,

particularly between really resting because we are in the off season and I've realized how

important it is for us to rest when nature rests. But I also know that it does so much good for

the soul when we can do some things that start the planning process in our minds or getting

prepared for things that will happen when the garden season

gets busier. So I really want to strike that balance of giving ourselves a chance to rest, but also

inspiring us and motivating us and getting us excited. Because I don't know about you, but the garden

planning and ideation process, so to speak, is one of my favorite parts about January. It's kind of hard

because we are in a very low period of the year in many ways. If you're in the northern hemisphere,

if you're in the southern hemisphere, I'm so jealous at the moment. But in many ways,

January is a tough month for a lot of people.

In fact, is it called Blue Monday? It's one of the, I think it's a Monday in January that's considered one of the most depressing days of the year. But for me, ever since I started a garden, that has not been

the case. It's instead more of a shift. Even though the days are still really short,

you can almost tell that they're getting longer. Even without looking, there's just a difference

in nature as the days do start getting longer this time of year. So all that said, today I'm going to

be talking to you about some tasks that you can be doing right now.

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