Enjoying Your Garden In Winter Part 2

 In my last post, I wrote about identifying the best areas to focus your winter gardens. After all, there's no point in putting lots of beautiful plants out back where you'll never notice them. Now I want to get your brain thinking about all the different things you can add to your landscape to add winter interest. You'd be surprised how many options you have. 

First is the most obvious - evergreens. However, do you realize what a large variety of evergreens there are to work with? You can have a variety of needled plants like pine and spruce or wide leaf evergreens like holly or rhododendrons. Evergreens come in lots of colors too from limey chartreuse green to blue junipers to variegated bushes. You can also get a wide variety of shapes from small, ground hugging plants to enormous hemlocks. You can achieve a lot of interest and variety with evergreens alone. 

That's just the beginning though. Many plants produce colorful berries in winter from bright red winter berry, to blue juniper to purple beauty berry. As a bonus, many birds enjoy these berries and will come to your yard for them too. Pay attention at the garden center when buying plants because many of these plants require a male and female plant to have berries. 

You can also be thinking in terms of plants that

Winter Aconites at Longwood

have lovely bark in winter. Red twig dogwood is very popular for this reason but you can also enjoy white birch trees or some ornamental cherries. 

I am not one for a lot of artificial décor in the garden but in winter, simple pieces of statuary or décor can go a long way. Pots can be filled with cut evergreens all winter. Bird baths can also attract birds when not frozen over. 

Finally, think in terms of bringing Spring early. Plants like hellebore, crocus, winter aconite and witch hazel can bloom as early as February and bring the first taste of spring. Last March I was really impressed with how lovely the outside landscaping looked at Longwood Gardens and there's no reason you can't have some of those plants yourself. 

Is that enough to get your creativity flowing? You too can have a lovely winter garden in your own yard and escape the winter blues. Feel free to share any of your winter growing tips in the comments below. 

Enjoying Your Garden In Winter Part 1

 Winter is absolutely the low point of the year for gardeners. It's our time of rest and dreaming/planning. However, if you derive physical and mental health benefits from your garden, then loosing all of it for several months can be difficult. I've been thinking about this lately and how I can still get some enjoyment from my garden even in the cold dark months. Here are some ideas I've had to enjoy the landscape as much as possible, even if you live in the north like I do. 

First, consider your views out the window. Even the most enthusiastic snow bunny will spend more time indoors in the winter. What do you see out your windows? Sit in your most comfy chairs and observe what you can see outside. Perhaps you may wish to move your furniture so as to enjoy the outside more. 

Second, can you create a walking path outside? Even a smaller yard like ours would lend itself to a circular stroll. Even here in PA there are some nicer days in the winter when I can bundle up and enjoy a walk around the garden. 

Third, eventually I'd like to improve our outdoor fire pit to encourage winter use. On the unusually warm day you can have a bonfire outside and drink warm tea. 

Once you have identified the areas of your garden are most visible in the winter and would bring the most enjoyment, then you need to identify unpleasant things to be removed or covered. Maybe you still have fall pumpkins out rotting that need to go in the compost. If you're like us, you probably still have children's summer toys lying around, or some trash that has blown about. Give things a clean up. If you have an ugly view that needs to be covered up, start thinking about how you can do that. 

After you've gotten the problems taken care of, you're ready to add in beauty. How to do that? Well, that's in part 2! How do you enjoy your garden in winter? I'd love to hear your ideas. 

The Basics of Winter Sowing

This topic is rather exciting for me because I think it will be so useful for many of my friends. Most of the people I hang out with don't have a lot of time and energy to put into gardening, enjoy doing projects with their kids, and would like to save a few bucks. Winter sowing, in theory at least, can accomplish all three of these things.

Having somewhat limited space with a baby, a cat, and a toddler (I have a husband too but he would leave my plants alone) makes seed starting an impossibility. Also, the cost of special lights, trays, soil, warming pads and any other equipment makes seed starting way more costly than just buying plants at the nursery in the spring. However, if you can do direct seeding outside then it's much cheaper than buying plants. Winter sowing is a way to put these methods together.

Here are the basic steps.
1. Get a few plastic jugs such as milk cartons and cut three sides of the container so you can "hinge" it open at 3-4 inches from the bottom. You MUST put holes in the bottom for drainage. Otherwise your seeds are toast.

2. Fill the bottom 3 inches or so with soil. I used Miracle Grow Seed Starting Potting Soil because that's what I had on hand. You can use any decent potting soil. (One website I read suggested peeing on dirt to add nitrogen. You can try that and let me know how it goes.)

3. Thoroughly water the soil and let it drain a bit. Then plant 3-6 seeds in the soil and be sure they are covered.

4. Duct tape the container back together and leave the cap off for ventilation.

5. Set the containers outside in the sun. Don't heat them or protect them. Do this soon, after February it will be too late.

6. Forget about them! Let nature take it's course till the plant is big enough in the spring to be transplanted.

Pretty easy huh? Winter sowing is also a great project to do with your kids. If it works well this year, then this will definitely become part of my new gardening routine. Have you tried winter sowing? Please post about it in the comments below!

Maximize Your Vegetable Garden

One of my favorite ways to spend a cold, wintry evening is to look over several plant and seed catalogs and plan out what I'm going to grow in my garden in the coming year. If you're normally the kind of person who buys whatever random things jump out at you at the garden center in May, then you should try a different approach this year! Here are some basic steps you can take to get the most out of your vegetable garden this year. 

First, request a few free catalogs online. For beginners, I'd recommend Gurneys or Burpees. If you want a larger selection, try Johnny's or Territorial. My personal favorite is Baker Creek Seeds as their customer service is great, the prices are good and all of their seeds are open pollinated so you can get into seed saving. (Note, I'm not paid anything by these companies).

Second, keep in mind how much space you have. Sure, growing pumpkins may sound fun but if the plants take over your garden, you won't be getting a lot of edibles for your space. Great plants for small space gardening include lettuce, spinach, bush beans, beets, carrots and onions. You can also use vineing plants if you have a fence or trellis for the vines to climb on. 

Third, prioritize what your family loves to eat. Last year I had a very prolific patch of Swiss chard. Now, I do like Swiss chard but my husband won't touch it and a lot of it went to waste. This year, I'm zeroing in on what we really like to eat. Of course, it never hurts to try out a couple new things either. 

Fourth, look for varieties that are disease resistant and tolerant of weather variations. Sometimes the biggest and most colorful fruits are the ones that are the most susceptible to disease and bugs. Go with the safe bet and you'll have fewer problems in the growing season. 

Finally, write down on your calendar when you need to plant your seeds so time doesn't get away from you. Cold weather plants like spinach can be sown here in central pa as early as St. Patrick's Day. Others, like tomatoes, have to wait till May. 

With these tips in mind, I know you can harvest and enjoy loads of fresh, healthy vegetables from your garden this year. How do you decide what to grow? Feel free to comment below. 

6 Ways To Feed Your Gardening Habit in the Winter

As I'm writing this post, it's pretty darn cold outside for central PA. Now that the holidays are over, I'm ready for spring! If your favorite hobby involves a green thumb, then January and February can be a bit of a downer. Here are a few ways I enjoy gardening in winter.

1. Order some free seed catalogs and check out all the cool varieties you can grow in your garden this year. Some of my favorites are (and I'm not being paid anything from them) Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Territorial Seeds, and Stark Brothers Nursery .

2. Plan your garden and set goals! Once you see what's available, you can draw out a rough sketch of your garden and plan out what you want to grow. You can try out a new variety of vegetable or flower or a new way of cooking or preserving your produce. One of the things I love about gardening is that there are always new things to learn about and try. Which leads me to my next point...

3. Spend some time this winter reading up on an aspect of gardening you're interested in. You can find lots of great articles at www.motherearthnews.com or check out this blog post I wrote on some books I recommend.

4. Enjoy a houseplant or two. There are countless varieties available at your local garden center. One of my favorite ideas is to grow an herb plant such as basil or parsley that will also provide a welcome freshness to your winter cooking.

5. If  you get some unusually warm days, as we typically do here in central pa, you can take the opportunity to get some minor hardscaping done. For instance, I know I'd like to create a simple fence around my raspberry canes off the ground so it's easier to mow around this year. As long as the ground isn't frozen, I should be able to get that done when I get time. I also have at least one place where I'd like to take out the grass and add mulch and stone. It's not as much fun as growing stuff, but it will save me time in the Spring.

6. Pruning is a common winter practice. If you have fruit trees and bushes, rose bushes, or brambles, then you'll need to spend some time pruning them this winter. Find more information about how to prune, check out this post.

So, there are my six best ideas to enjoy your winter. How do you enjoy gardening when it's too cold outside?