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Post by laurazone5 on Jan 15, 2024 23:12:05 GMT
So far, I have 'cold stratified' all the flowers, herbs in the fridge that need to chill out for 8 weeks.
I started several hot peppers on wet paper towels, in zip bags, on heat mats.
I've plotted out what I am going to plant, and where in my pollinator garden.
I have a gazillion seeds (I might have a problem, lol) and need to start planning where everything is going to go.
I am going to start pulling what I want to grow, then find homes for all of the treasures.
This month I will clean, sharpen and oil all of the garden tools.
Sunday, Jan 21, I will cold strat all of my seeds that needs 6 weeks.
Saturday Jan 27 is the seed swap by the Master Gardeners Club so...........I know, more seeds. LOL
What do ya all do in January to get ready for spring / summer?
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Post by FeralFerret on Jan 16, 2024 6:12:40 GMT
"What do ya all do in January to get ready for spring / summer?"
Mostly shiver.
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Post by Billy G on Jan 16, 2024 12:52:19 GMT
Fellow seed saver here. While I do save some veggy seeds most of what I collect is from stands of native wildflowers. A bit of what I save is given away, many of the libraries around us have seed libraries that are happy to give and receive them. This is a free service so check and see if there's one near you if interested. I also drill out native bee nest blocks in the winter, it helps to have a variety of bees around as some flowers are harder than others to pollinate.
We feed the birds in the winter and our sunflower seeds come in large brown paper sacks similar to the ones city folks bag their leaves up with in the fall. When I get 3-4 of them saved up I'll cut them into 7-8 inch wide strips and run them though an old five dollar, garage sale paper shredder. This will be the bedding material for my compost worm "farm" I set up in the spring.
I also set up a small wire rack type shelving unit over the heat register in the spare bedroom and dry my daily coffee grounds on it using old cookie sheets. Once the humidity in the house drops to around forty though, which is usually January nowadays. After a three day rotation the grounds are dry as a bone and go back in the can, well labeled as such, and the dried filters go in another can to be tossed in the worm farm later. Spent coffee grounds are an excellent fertilizer and compost addition.
Winter is also a good time, as mentioned upstream, to look after your tools. I like to apply linseed oil to the handles on mine as there's a slight chance they might get leaned against something and missed during clean-up of a project. Weather resistance is a plus around here.
This year I've started making charcoal from some of the constantly falling tree limbs, once spring hits I can charge it with compost and work it into the various garden beds to hold moisture and retain nutrients. Goes by the label of biochar in organic gardening circles.
I'll try just about anything related to organic growing if it limits my screen time, never much cared for TV and am even less impressed with most social media. Not to mention it's the only way to get nutrient dense food anymore.
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Post by Txsteader on Jan 16, 2024 13:24:06 GMT
I'll order more seeds (that I don't need). I have a stack of seed catalogs that I've managed to not touch but I know that I'll get bored in the coming weeks and that's when I'm most likely to place an order or two.
Plant seeds that need cold stratification, mostly flowers because I need more plants for pollinators.
I'll begin to plant seed for transplanting in spring; squash, tomatoes, peppers.
If I catch a tolerable day, I need to dig and divide perennials that I didn't do back in Oct/Nov.
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Post by laurazone5 on Jan 16, 2024 14:01:36 GMT
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Post by Billy G on Jan 16, 2024 15:08:35 GMT
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Post by woolybear on Jan 16, 2024 16:06:18 GMT
Need to assemble the wire shelf unit. Install the grow lights and get ready to start my seeds. Amazingly the plants that I potted up from outside to bring inside are still alive. The large habanero is starting to flower, and the celery is still living. After I get the snow cleaned up I'll start my onions (which I never have much luck getting a decent crop, but I keep trying), celery, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and the peppers - some one please, PLEASE, tell me why a person who doesn't care much for peppers has developed an obsession with growing hot peppers???
I also want to start some lettuce and spinach to see how they do under the grow lights. Plus try a small experiment with hydroponics growing, what else, hot peppers lol.
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Post by laurazone5 on Jan 16, 2024 22:33:02 GMT
I grow the crazy super hots because my daughter makes amazing hot sauce with them!
I can BARELY handle a jalapeno......lol
I learned on the YouTube that you can hard prune, dig up the roots at the end of the season, pot them up, and put them inside for the winter!!!
That's half my battle, is getting them to root down and produce before it gets cold here.
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Post by woolybear on Jan 17, 2024 1:09:42 GMT
laurazone5, that's what I did with all my peppers this year. Pruned them back, plopped them into smaller pots - maybe a gallon, except that silly habanero. I dug it up, plopped into a bigger pot, left all the little peppers on it and stuck it in the basement with grow lights on it. The crazy thing is staying alive, but it might not be too happy at the moment, temps are 55-60* down there. I need to get the mylar sheets arranged around it to help keep in more light and hopefully a bit more heat from the lights. I'll try to remember to take a pic of it tomorrow and if the stars align and the internet gods work with me I'll see if I can get it to post.
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Post by woolybear on Jan 17, 2024 15:30:46 GMT
Let's see if this will work with posting a pic. If it does in the front is a lemon tree, behind it is the habanero, and to the left is the celery  |
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Post by woolybear on Jan 17, 2024 15:32:42 GMT
Sorry for the big size of pic I forgot to resize it
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Jan 17, 2024 21:34:56 GMT
woolybear, Came through just fine, no problem with the size. I've yet to figure out how the pro-boards images work.
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Post by woolybear on Jan 17, 2024 22:56:28 GMT
Ozarks Tom, the only way I can do a pic is take the picture, upload it to my facebook account and then I can copy/paste the facebook address into the insert pic tab. BUT it has to be done at the top of the message page reply button, I can't do it as a quick reply. I'm real sure that there is a simpler way of posting pics but I have to do what works with my brain lol. You should see how I work out math problems, it would give a math expert a stroke.
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Jan 18, 2024 0:10:43 GMT
You should see how I work out math problems, it would give a math expert a stroke. Hold my beer!! |
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Post by Txsteader on Jan 18, 2024 21:31:29 GMT
Well amazingly my lettuce, sweet peas and carrots survived two nights down to 22 degrees, uncovered. A few of the lettuce leaves look a little burned but I think they're gonna pull through just fine. The variety is Jericho, it's a romaine bred in Israel of course, to be heat tolerant. If I'm lucky, it may produce all the way to early summer. So far, I'm impressed.
My broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are planted in pots that I'd moved into the garage.
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