January 2022

 Indoor Growing and Planning for the Summer

Out here in the wilds of Canada it is -10 outside and we have a covering of about an inch of snow so I get my growing fix from microgreens and sprouts.  I've got quite good at both now and although I will definitely starve to death if the stores close I can supplement my diet with a little bit of home grown and get my gardening fix this way.

This weeks crop includes alfalfa sprouts and kale and basil microgreens.

I'm also managing some homegrown by drinking peppermint tea brewed with last year's dried peppermint.

And so to planning.  The main thing I've decided to do this year is to try to increase my vegetable yield by growing a smaller variety of things but doing a better job of it.  I'm restricting myself to 5 different types of vegetables, all of which I am growing because I like to eat them and not because they are a novelty or are easy to grow.  Here's the list:

1. Onions - bulb and salad and if I can get hold of any perennial bunching onions that would be great.
2. Zucchini - vining because they take up less space.
3. Broad beans
4. Tomatoes
5. Greens - lots because I've got seed to use up and I can grow them in succession all summer.

Another major aim for this year is to put in a proper pond, by which I mean something bigger than an upside down bin lid.  My biggest problem with this is where I'm going to site it, there honestly isn't a whole lot of room anywhere that is flat and sunny and I don't want to spend ages trying to grade a pond into a slope then spend even more time getting fallen leaves out of it.  Ideally I'd like to dig up some lawn to but I may end up encroaching on some garden space.

What's poppin' in the garden

lol - not a whole lot but here's a couple of photos anyway, I'll try to give them some wintery beauty.

Cone flower seed heads, what's left over after the goldfinches have been at them

Cone flower seed heads

Lemon bergamot

Lemon bergamot

Lavender, amazed it's still green

Hellebores just waiting for spring

Hellebores

Blanket flower

Blanket flower seed head

Jobs I've done since September

October - planted foxgloves in the minefield and the berry patch.  Have quite a few left in pots.  Emptied the big compost bin onto the veg gardens.  Buried the bokashi at the bottom of the empty bin and covered it with un-composted waste from the smaller bin.

October 12.  Planted some experimental garlic.  I discovered when clearing up the herb bed that the cloves of the 2 bulbs I'd left in place had begun to sprout so I lifted them and planted them in one of the square foot gardens 19 cloves.  At the same time I planted all the little 23 bulbils into a flower pot and sunk that into the same garden.  It has been ransacked by some local wildlife so I'm not sure if any have survived.

November - bought Peppermint Stick botanical tulips - is this the same as species tulips? and planted them with the old bulbs from last year's pots in 3 circular shapes in the lawn in the front yard.  Also put some broad beans 'Windsor' in there so I've got an excuse not to mow next spring.  At the end of November I bought myself a leaf shredder to deal with all the leaves from the front lawn.  It did a pretty good job of shredding them up and I used the resulting leaf bits to mulch the minefield and part fill up the leaf bin by the compost heaps.

December 6.  Began cold moist stratification on:

• Ratibida
• Nodding Wild Onion
• Golden Alexanders
• Beardtongue
• False White Indigo
• Spiderwort
• Wild Columbine
• Ox Eye Daisy

December 31.  Scattered front lawn with proprietary seed mix to begin de-lawning.  Seeds included:

• Purple prairie clover
• Earl grey larkspur
• Pale purple cone flower
• Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam'
• Prairie coneflower
• Lemon bergamot
• Common milkweed
• Golden alexanders
• Wild columbine
• White false indigo
• Beardtongue
• Italian arugula
• Italian flat leaf parsley
• Sorrel
• Red salad bowl
• New England asters
• Blazing star
• Cosmos purity

January.  Sorted through all my seeds as recommended by Monty Don on the Gardener's World Christmas Special.  Binned any that were more than 3 years old, stored any that I don't think I'll need this year and put the rest all tidy back in their box.  It seems like I don't need to buy a whole lot this year.  Just maybe some tomato seeds (unless I buy plants) and I might begin some wall flowers.

Resolutions for this year

1. Make a good sized pond
2. Install the rain butts that have been in the garage since last August
3. Put some climbers up the arbour
4. Reduce lawn size even more
5. Plant some more trees/shrubs for bird cover, maybe on the front lawn
6. Build a cold frame