What to Plant in January

I often get asked the question: "What seeds can I plant in January?"  Well, it's a little early to plant most things, but there are a few seeds that can go in now (or at least when the next thaw hits) - notably peas and sweet peas.
 
We learned the trick for guaranteed pea yields when we lived in New England. We had heard that peas can be planted in the winter in the South. So we thought we would try it where we lived. During the January thaw we soaked a bag of pea seeds overnight to swell them up. The next day I went out to the garden with a mattock and clods of frozen soil at the thaw line - about 4 to six inches down. After an hour or so I had a fairly large area cleared with the blocks of soil lying next to the prepared bed. I simply scattered the seeds in the prepared area and rolled the clots of dirt back into place. Sometime in late March the peas poked above the ground and we had a fantastic harvest. Notably, no one else in the neighborhood had success with peas that year because a cold wet spring delayed their planting too much to permit high flower set before hot weather (hot weather is a relative term in New England). Every year after that we planted peas in January. Note that planting in January is much easier here in Southern Maryland where the soil is often quite workable in January.  Sweet pea seeds can go in now - actually could have been planted in the late fall. Many hardy annual flowers can also be planted in late fall - our Batchelor Buttons are almost ready to bloom and the Larkspur seedlings are about an inch high.