What is it about the very worst of winter that makes the seed companies know this is the exact moment they need to send out catalogues for next year?

No, my major farmer friends, this is not just about you and the latest in soybean and corn varieties. This is about all those women like me who grew up on a farm but no longer experience the excitement (and trepidation) of next year’s planting season. This is to make us really think about what we want to plant when the first flush of warm winds arrive, and the urge to dig in the dirt becomes irresistible.

I’m particularly excited this year because I have a good lawn space that I am turning into a perennial garden, and I’m eager to get working on it again.

I am always amazed at the variety of plants that are available to choose from, and I’ve never been good at remembering the names. But I found inspiration in last year’s Kansas Rural Center events that featured perennial gardens and the plants that help pollinators.

My grandkids have been helping me get the space ready. Last fall, we sprayed the grass in the area where we wanted to put fall bulbs, and then covered it with a thick layer of newspaper and a bed of mulch. Then, we put in tulip, daffodil and lily bulbs that will be coming up to greet the first signs of spring.

Next year, I plan to seed more perennial varieties and bulbs for late summer and fall color. And there are spaces for adding my tomato and pepper tubs and a couple of trellises for pole beans.

Best of all, once the work is finished, we should have all the spaces that routinely require weed-whacking turned into garden, enabling us to mow the yard with the riding mower right up to the edge of the garden. We’ll finally be rid of the onerous task of trimming.

And maybe the very best part is sitting here, looking out the back patio door, thinking about how I’m going to do all this and how great it is going to look when it isn’t covered by snow; when the wind isn’t blowing 30 mph and when I don’t feel like my socks are frozen in 10 minutes.

Yeah, the best part — this freeze won’t last — spring is coming and any day now, the sun is going to shine, the turtles are going to climb out on the logs and I am going to lean back and go “YESSSSS!” And it won’t be that far away.

In the meantime, there are all these catalogues to thumb through and all these decisions to be made.