Winter Sowing, Gardening in January

Its winter , Its cold and dark outside , not what you would call good growing weather !! Despite that I always seem to get an itch to get out there and do something ... which due to living in Canada , is usually impossible !   That was until last year , when i discovered winter sowing :))  Such a wonderful, simple way to get your hands in the dirt again , planting seeds ...  

 Winter Sowing Chili Peppers, Basil & Zucchini to start// mostly b/c that was what I had on hand , and I could only scavenge 3 containers this week :)) More to follow ! 


Garden Tip :I highly recommend keeping a garden journal , point form is just fine , it will come in handy , and once you have a few years in the book , a very handy reference esp. if your like me and like to try experiments and tend to forget where or what they were ! Hahaha 

Required :
Good Quality , or Organic Potting Soil
Clean plastic jugs , 2L to 4L sizes , Gallon milk jugs seems to work best
Seeds , organic or heirlium
Sharp Scissors or Knife
Duct Tape
Permenant Marker

 

Simply cut the jug , about 4 iches from the bottom .. almost all the way around , leaving a short side as a hinge ...   fill with soil to just below the cut . 

 

The seeds will need to breathe ...  so a few slashes or cuts around the top are required . ( 6 to 8 seems to be fine )  Also.. use that marker !  If you have more than a few jugs it will be near impossible to keep them all straight without labels! 

 

Pop your seeds in ... I over seed slightly , with the expectation of thinning them out come spring .   If your soil is really dry , you will want to add a little water at this point .. not soaked , damp is good enough .  

 

Duct Tape to the rescue ...   Tape up the cut, all the way round.  Bring your jugs outside ...  somewhere away from dogs if you have them , or they will become pee magnets !  No further coverings are required , if it snows , just leave them be ... no worries at all :)

It is really that simple ... come spring as the weather warms up , mother nature will do her thing ... the seeds will sprout , and the plastic container will act as a mini greenhouse giving your plants the much need protection during the delicate phase ... 

I do hope this helps you get a jump start on spring ... I will be following up with at least two more posts :))

Peace, Love & Happy Gardening

Rich

Hugelkultur Gardening , my first attempt :)

HUGELKULTUR

Step One - Dig down approx 2ft :)

This is not a new idea by any streatch of the imagination ... in fact , its more ike rediscovering and old way to reduce irrigation and increase plant yields. 
The concept is rather simple, dig a big hole and fill it with old logs and brush , cover back up again and start planting ... or like me , leave it to settle over winter for sring planting :)
2013 was a terrible year for my tomatoes , so Im really hoping this will help them along , only time will tell :)

Step Two : Fill with wood 

Step Three: Top with light brush or compost 

Step Four : Cover it up again

Thats it ... its just hard work , nothing else .

I'll be sure to post about this next spring and give you an update

Peace, Love and Happy Gardening ....
Rich  

Six Stages of a Sunflower

 

 

 

 

 

Rich's Garden Tips - Use a cold frame

I love to experiment in my garden ...  this one was fun , and very easy to see the benefits .   17 days in , this is the difference.   I should note I planted these 5 weeks before our last frost date , temps have been pretty mild , thankfully not much frost . 

Consider using a cold frame, I built my three for free .. old plastic from a farm , and a few old wooden bearing crates .



 

Gardening In June

First off.  I must apologize for being so far behind on my blogging , I just can not seem to get my writing mood working properly .   Now lets get caught up :))
June is an exciting month to be gardening ... everything is starting to takeoff, and if you planned it well, you can even have a few salads , and some tasty early crops.   Radishes , lettuces, spring onions, even peas ...  plus of course the herbs.  MmmmMmmm so exciting to watch, kinda painful to have to wait for it all though !

My 1st 3 sisters plot is doing well., I should have waited a few more weeks before planting the beans though , they ended up going a little wild without a nice corn stalk to grow up . 

1st week of June,  everything is safe from frost now , cold frames have been removed... its time to grow!! 

The peas needed a little help climbing the chair.  

The maple sticks were plenty strong enough to support the peas, but for future reference , make sure they are dried!!  Hahaha they started sprouting on me.  

June is great for lettuces.. not too hot . Mmmm fresh garden salad!   I'm not very good at thinning , but am getting better .. esp. now that I just eat the thinnings. 

Basil :)) My favourite herb.   This year I'm growing most of it in containers, and only one test patch in the ground.   

By mid June ..  the peas were flowering!!  

Mid June again , my first full salad from the garden .. lettuces, radishes, onions, and a few herbs. 

I cut a large bunch of my oregano, and hung it in a breezy sunny spot to dry out.  Funny, i don't like fresh oregano, only dried. 

TOMATOES!!!  Yeah !  I will have to wait at least another month to eat them ... but I'm so very happy.   Proper spacing of my tomato plants this year , has made a huge impact on how many tomatoes per plant I'm getting .  Don't crowd them, it does not get you more tomatoes.  

June is full of flowers!!  These are Scarlet Runner Beans.  

Radishes are a great early crop,  in less than a month you are eating them!  

By the 3rd week of June , things are really starting to pick up!  The squash is starting to sprawl out :)) 

Same with the peas, by the 3rd week ... I'm eating them on every trip to the garden . 

My Bright Lights Swiss Shard is doing amazing , and tastes just as good! 

This radish was growing for  about 35 days !  It was huge :)) 

The peas finally climbed the chair :))  Will be drilling a few holes in the seat for next season ...  to let a little more water underneath . 

By the end of June , the onions I left in the ground last fall have gone to seed.  Time to clip the heads and try and save some.  

That brings us up to July !  Ill be doing a two part post for that as there is so much going on !!   I have a garden journal , so If I have skipped something , or not explained it fully .. please just leave a comment below , and Ill happily fill in any blanks!!   Either that or jump over to my Facebook page , and check out the daily goings on there.

Happy Gardening !!

Starting My Garden Early 4

:)) It seems that stabbing your foot with a pitch fork is good for getting caught up on blogs !!  Hahaha Thank fully I just nailed on toe , and not the whole foot. Its amazing how much one toe can hurt though .  So that leads me to this post ,  I'm finally caught up to June, well I will be once this one is done.   Yeah!!

I would like to apologize to everyone for being so far behind on these, it was an odd couple of months for me... but I'm back and the words are coming to me nice and easy .

This post is all about the last 10 days of May ,  which up here in Ontario Canada is our last frost date ...  and the time when most people start gardening ,  I had a great head start and actually planted seeds in March :))

This post should cover that :  http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2011/04/starting-my-garden-early.html

Ive never had much luck growing potatoes , so I thought Id try out the bucket method...  ( Ill be doing a blog post on the whole process once Ive harvested )  If you want more details, follow this link to my Facebook page 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.188441627869894.39828.118986254815432

I decided to try a 3 sisters planting ...  I kind of jumped the gun on this and planted the beans and squash a little to early .  I have two more plots , so I have another chance to get it right .  

:))  This is some ornamental corn I started inside ...    love this shot . 

The trellis for my peas,  I used freshly cut maple sticks ( MISTAKE!! ) hahaha they are trying to regrow.  Ooops , its too late now , but next time I'll use ones that are clearly dead.  

Someone suggested using an old chair to let peas trellis on , found this one .. so far so good.
In the corner is a mini greenhouse I made from a water bottle... the tomatoes needed just a little more warmth to get them growing . I left them on for a week, and it worked like a charm :) 

Starting My Garden Early 3

This year I started my Garden a full 6 weeks , maybe 7 before our last frost date ...  some things were kept inside , while others went outside with a few simple cold frames.  

Ill keep this brief , as I'm so far behind now , that most of this is slightly out of date. Well for this year anyways :))

Its always a good idea to harden your plants off for a few days, or even a week after starting them inside.  Gets them used to the outdoors. 

Garlic that was planted last fall ..  coming back strong!!  Can't wait :)) 

This will become my first 3 sisters planting :))   

Gotta watch it when you hardening off plants , Id left these outside and went to work , then we had an unexpected scorcher of a spring day ... All ten cucumber seedlings were burnt to a crisp in one afternoon :(( 

Oregano and thyme really appreciated the cold frame... they cam thru stronger than ever  :)) 

Onions I left in from last year , and a few that had sprouted in my pantry .
If they wont grow onions , I'm going to try and save the seeds this year . 

My Garden in mid - May , still 10 days before the last frost , but I thought Id risk a few things.  

Most everything in my garden is recycled .. including the plant markers, I got these strips from the scrap bin at a local lumber yard . Free!!  

Cold frames are gone , and tomatoes and pepper plants are in ... still one week of possible frost , but I was feeling lucky :)) 

Decided to try adding some straw to the garlic .. see if it would help with the weeds...  It did a little , but also makes it harder to use a hoe between the rows .. Hmmmm 

Well , I'm getting there !! This brings us up to the 3rd week in May :) Almost there....
As always , questions or comments are most welcome.
Happy Gardening !!