Monday, January 17, 2011

Gardening in January

So. It's mid January, the seed catalogs are piled high, the grow light is... oops, forgot to turn it on this morning. There, now. The grow light is encouraging a few onions and lettuce for now. Next year, I'm going to use it for herbs when it gets too cold outside. The other grow light - the one that's supposed to hang on something when I don't have anything to hang it on, will be used for starting seedlings for the garden soon. I lay it over bricks to get it the right height. Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

But this summer I plan to try to create a system similar to the one I got for Christmas which is the one I'm using now. It's a frame with a hanging light that can be adjusted over a planter.

Yeah... I can garden in the dead of winter. ;)

So far, I've just been looking at the seed catalogs, but sooner or later, I will try to plan where to plant what. With a limited area, I have to be pretty creative at times, but so far, so good. I already have most of the seed that will be needed this year, but of course, I gotta try something different now and then.

Frugal take on a garden is all that good food. It can be cheaper than the grocery store kind and it's a whole lot better.

Ways to make a garden more frugal:

  • Container garden in castaway containers.
  • Make your own compost. 
  • Hoe and pull weeds by hand. 
  • Try no till gardening
  • Make your own special fertilizers
  • Water by drip irrigation instead of overhead

Want to talk about it? It's time!

10 comments:

  1. I am making my gardening plans, here in Ohio as well. I wish I could convince the hubsters to invest in more soaker hoses, so we could do more "drip" irrigation watering. He believes they are a waste of money. We do use a cultivator between rows for weeding, but I still hand weed/hoe close to the plants. I am looking forward to the garden & canning this year. Need to teach my kids that we can more more self sufficient & reliant!!

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  2. Agreed! Have you thought of trying to use an old hose for a soaker hose? I did for awhile one time - just poked a few more holes in it and it worked pretty good.

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  3. Mother Earth News magazine had an article in their latest issue about vertical gardening - growing up on trellises, poles, fences, etc. to save space that had some good info. I think it is available online if you don't subscribe.

    Bette

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  4. I'll look for it, thanks, Bette!

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  5. I just got food out of my actual garden (raised be and containers)!
    We'd had snow during a very very hard freeze, down to about 5below zero but when the snow came off this week I found 2 onions with only a little damage from the freeze, a good turnip, 3 small carrots, kohlrabe, kale and chard still going strong. I'm going to try leaving more in there next winter and some day I'll get around to putting that greenhouse over a portion of the garden.

    I'll be starting some lettuce in the house shortly as I'm sick of eating the dehydrated and canned food from last summer. Having a handfull of greens and some fresh onions was such a treat.

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  6. Jill, I wish things would overwinter here. The only thing I've been able to keep is Jerusalem artichokes and I have to mulch them heavily in the fall. We can sometimes get way below freezing here so I wouldn't trust anything to the weather!

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  7. We've been water logged down here in Florida. I hope something besides my garlic survive. ;^)

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  8. Does garlic like that much water? :) I hope it survives. Maybe you should grow rice? :)

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  9. Actually Pat I have all plants in containers in my yard...

    I've got plenty of space to do whatever I'd like with the yard but threat of flooding and now 3 days into hurricane season discourages me from doing much of anything else for now.

    No...garlic does not care very much for so much water... :=)

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