Start the new year with these new garden/nature related traditions!

Do you feel it? We have made it over the hump. Not a Wednesday, mid-week hump, but the big one –the Winter Solstice. Now, every day is moving us one day closer to brighter days, and nearer to planting season.
But as we cross over to the new calendar year, there are some interesting gardening and nature traditions that can get us in the growing spirit long before we can start to grow outside. Many cultures celebrate nature at the new year. I learned of a Scandinavian tradition years ago when I opened a Christmas card from a dear friend of Nordic heritage, and a tiny package of bird seed fell out.
The instructions said it was an old Scandinavian tradition to usher in the new year by spreading the birdseed outside the front door to bring those who dwell within happiness all the year through. Some versions of this tradition say to do it Christmas morning, others during Christmastime, but whatever the day you choose, it is delightful to hear our bird of winter softly tweeting good wishes just outside the door.
There are also certain foods that signal a good year ahead if you consume them at the stroke of midnight. So, leave a little room after that New Year’s Eve party, and as the clock strikes 12, you can eat 12 grapes. A tradition that started in Spain and called las doce uvas de la suerte (the 12 grapes of luck. The tradition says to eat the grapes, within the 12 gongs of the clock, signaling going from the old year into the new. One for each month of good luck.
It took me a bit of “research,” aka googling, to learn that from the first to the last gong of a clock at 12, is only 22 seconds. That sounds more like a recipe for the Heimlich maneuver, than good luck in the new year. An added bonus, you can say you literally started the new year eating healthy, right?
Another healthy way to start the new year is eating your vegetables. Southern tradition says to eat greens (collards, mustard, really any green) and black-eyed peas — on New Year’s Day to enjoy prosperity in the new year. The greens are for paper bills and the peas for coins. But what food is shaped like my ATM card?
Now for a tradition that suggests you don’t eat two foods on New Year’s Eve. Many cultures believe eating lobster on New Year’s Eve is bad luck. The suggestion is that since lobsters move backwards, by eating them you will be held back from good things in the new year. Similarly, some cultures believe eating chicken on New Year’s Eve, will make your good luck fly away like a bird.
Some plants are hung symbolically to be a sign of prosperity in the new year. Greeks long believed the onion symbolized prosperity, and it was customary to hang a decorative braid of onions on the front door. They don’t say how long they leave them there, but with our wild Midwest bipolar weather, after a few weeks, the frozen/thawed/frozen onions might be bringing luck in the compost bin.
There is also the Czech tradition of the fortune-telling apple. Each person at the festivities is given an apple to cut in half horizontally. Whatever symbol is revealed inside, is supposed to predict the future year for the person.
If the seeds appear as a star, the future is bright; if it reveals a cross, well, just give them another apple till they also find a star, as the cross is a foreshadower of doom. For me, though, I would just insert my own take on the cross and tell that apple’s owner that the year will bring them blessings.
You want to bring some real luck, now that we have all these cut apples, who is up for a little caramel dip to go with those?
Now for a tradition that I made up just to scratch my gardening itch. By New Year’s, the gardening catalogs have been rolling in fast and furious, and I yearn for that smell of soil, the feel of it in my hands, the continual amazement I have for the perfect package — the seed.
So every New Year’s Day, I get out a medium-sized fairly shallow container, about the size of my potato salad bowl, and I plant some cut and come again lettuce seed. Of course I start with the holy trinity of planting — potting mix (not soil), the soil has been pre-moistened to the texture of a wrung-out dish cloth, and the container with holes for drainage.
I use any lettuce seed I have left over from last year — leaf, romaine, butter bibb and if I have it, spinach. I broadcast heavily over the top of the soil and just press it in and gently roll my palm over the entire surface.
Water well and put in as sunny a window as you have. Leafy greens aren’t the sun mongers that our summertime vegetable are. And in 3-4 weeks you will have a little garden of greens that you can snip a sandwich or salad’s worth anytime you want.
Just be sure to leave an inch or two so the lettuces regrow several times over.

12 grapes at midnight before the 12th gong of the clock sounds, assures a bountiful new year.