For those of you who have been with me for a while I bet you are wondering, what about gardening? It’s been all about self-care lately. Well, the persephone period (the time between solstice and then end of January) is finally over, which mean there is now enough light and day length that plants can start to wake up and put out new roots before the growing season starts.
You might be thinking, are you nuts it’s still February and cold and snowy. That’s true, but seed starting season is in full swing! I’m sure you’ve gotten your catologs in the mail already. As a Xennial, snail mail catologs are one of my favorite things. It reminds of the old days. I leave my seed catologs lying around. They are so full of color and hope, you can’t help but want to stop to look and dream about the future.
If you don’t have any seed catologs or are new to gardening, I’ve created a list of my twelve favorite seed companies.
About two weeks ago I took the time to do seed inventory. A very important midwinter task, that not only helps you plan ahead, but also gives you a little pick me up if it’s cold and you are stuck inside.
It’s very helpful to plan out your spring and summer crops at the same time because you’ll be starting spring crops now and with in a month or two you’ll also need to start summer crops.
Here in Northern Utah we’ve had a terribly dry warm and snowless winter. The trails were dusty up until just a day or two ago when we finally got some rain. As a gardener this both a boon and bust. It’s a boon because it means we can get spring crops in the ground really soon. Like a month before normal! That’s crazy. Even the crocuses and daffodils are popping up in places. It’s a bust because that means the summer dry season will be way longer.
There’s already been bud swell on the nectarines, cherries and peach trees in the big garden. And the garlic is already 3 inches tall! Holy moly. The garlic harvest will be so early this year.
If you want to predict the future weather, watch what the plants in your area are up too. Plants know much better than we do about the weather.
I’ve been gardening for 17 years now and I’ve definitely honed in on what I like to grow and eat (extremely important). You can want to grow something, but if you don’t eat it and it just goes in to the compost what’s the point in expending all that energy?
This year, because of the lack of precipitation, I’m planning a paired back garden. Planting only things I know will do well, especially under drought conditions.
On My List of Spring Planted Crops:
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kohlrabi
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kale
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chard
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various lettuces
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radishes
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carrots
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peas
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onions
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beets
These plants more or less all grow themselves. If you keep them covered and free of cabbage moths you’ll be swimming in kale and chard leaves.
I’ll have an update for the Nettlesome herbs garden soon. Herb gardening I feel is a whole seperate topic from vegetable gardening and one that deserves it’s own post!
What are your garden dreams this year? Please share in the comments below!
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