The garden in winter - January 10, 2023

It is January and the weather is cold and rainy. I look out of the window and see the clouds hanging and the still grayness of the day.  I see the neighbors' yards tidy and neat. The landscapers were there and did the annual fall clean up. There is nothing left to know that in the summer the trees had leaves or the beds were full of flowers. I look at my landscape and see the leaves, twigs with berries still hanging, and flower stems and heads. There are old squash and pumpkin fruit in a bed for the squirrels and birds to pick at. I see beauty and nature while others may not. This is where perceptions need to change.  Under that mat of leaves and in the twigs and branches there is life! The garden in winter harbors beneficial insects, birds and microbes.  You should let flowering perennials go to seed and leave the seed stalks standing. Seed heads are food sources for many birds during the winter, such as goldfinches, nuthatches, chickadees, cardinals, and sparrows. Native bumble bees, and mason bees, live in cavities of plant material. Provide a winter refuge by leaving an area of the yard untouched for plant stems, leaves, and yard debris to decompose, away from leaf blowers or mowers. It’s important not to remove leaves from your garden. Insects, such as the swallowtail, sulphur butterfly pupae, and lightening bugs overwinter on fallen leaves. Not only does the natural cover help the animal life but it also protects the roots and the breakdown of the leaves adds organic matter to the soil.  The time to clean up the yard is the spring. The best time to do the clean-up is when the temperature is above 50 degrees for at least 4 days. The insects living in the soil and in the mulch will begin to wake up and do their important business. I hope this helps and is educational. Stay tuned for more blogs.

Time to think - January 10, 2023

January 10, 2023 - There was a little extra time this afternoon and I just figured one more quick blog post couldn't hurt. Now is the time to think about your yard and what you want to do with it. Its important to walk around your yard and see what you like about it and what you don't. Make a list of what issues you had and want to correct. Look at seed catalogues like Johnnys or Seed Savers Exchange to see what you'd like to see in your yard. You can go to my links page and see what you can use as far as native plants to enhance your yard. You don't need to go fully native but a few native plants here and there can help you. After you do that contact me and we can meet and discuss your ideas? 

As a quick aside I have 4 seed catalogues that I opened yesterday and saw so many new types of plants and new varieties of old standbys.  These catalogues make a gray day brighter.  I circled a number of pages and will go over them again to make sure it's what I want. I will choose them for color, disease resistance, type, need, length until harvest among other things.  You can do the same. Have a great day! 

Scratching the itch - January 16, 2023 (with updates from January 22, 2023)

I have to admit the cold and wind this weekend kept me in the house a lot. I did the usual weekend activities and caught a football and hockey game, spoke to friends, killed time on the computer but I needed to do some gardening. So I went over last seasons seeds to see what needed to order for next year. There are some new varieties and more of the tried and true. In the box was a nice mixed lettuce packet. Hmmm, there is some potting soil in the garage, a plastic lettuce tray I had just finished and seed. What the heck lets plant some winter greens and see what happens. You can do this at home and there are many YouTube videos to help you along but that's what I'm here for. Gather all of your materials together. Place the soil in the container you are going to use and lightly moisten the soil. Level it with your hand. There are a few ways you can do this next step but I tamped down a couple of rows within the container. I then spread the seed into the rows and covered lightly with soil. Lettuce seed doesn't germinate well if it is planted too deep. Mist the surface with water. This will activate the growth enzymes within the seed. You will cover the tray with plastic to keep the moisture in and temperature consistent. To grow the lettuce plants to a good edible size we will need a grow light or if you have a good southern facing window you can place them there. Another cool trick is to use clear plastic cups and soil and just place them on the windowsill. Here are a couple pictures and as time goes on I will post some more with updates. 

January 23 updates - Well, we started the seeds about a week ago and they started to germinate within 4 days. It is such a happy feeling to see the little green tops of the growing plants break the surface.  Under the surface the first roots called the radicle are pushing down to begin the process of absorbing nutrients and anchoring the plant. Then the first little leaves called cotlydons bust out of the soil. They then the stem called hypocotyl begin to straighten to hold the leaves towards the sun or in this case the light source. They will turn the leaves towards the most intense light.  Unfortunately, I did not have the grow light ready. The only light available was the window and the plants started to stretch towards the sun. After 5 days the stems were 2 inches long.  That is not what we want. There were some late seedlings that we will keep but the tall leggy ones will go into my salad.  We now have a grow light! My mistake was not to have the grow area ready. As they say live and learn.  I reseeded the trays and am using a spray bottle to gently water the plants seeds in. On the new seedlings we will use a light liquid fertilization to help in their proper growth. You can see the setup in the pictures.  Look for more updates soon.