Garden Update: January
As I write this snow has been falling for the last twelve hours. The garden in January is covered in a blanket of snow and somewhat asleep except for the days we get a thaw and it melts out and becomes a horrible mucky mess. However, just because the garden is asleep doesn’t mean that things aren’t growing!
Yesterday I spent a good portion of the afternoon potting up plants. With a good grow light (we are testing out this one this year) you can have winter greens inside even when it’s too cold for for planting in a high tunnel.
I’m desperate for some good cooking greens: kale, chard, bok chow and spinach. The grouchy stores and sorely lack in that department, which is to be expected with supply chain issues and severe westcoast weather events. These little plants won’t ever be planted outside. They’ll be grown inside and we’ll pick the greens and eat then right from the pot.
Lastly, this wasn’t in my garden, but I went out for a hike before the snow started to fall and I found a giant wild/domestic rose bush full of rose hips. Foraging in the winter is possible too, you just have to know what to look for. In addition to the rose hips I found some dried Oregon grape, mountain ash berries ( too bitter to eat) and to my surprise, curly dock sprouts coming up through dead leaves and snow.
These rose hips will be dried and used for teas as they are so small. If I had the technology to extract the oil from them I would, as rose hip oil is great for supporting delicate skin around the eyes and the face in general.
Are you a gardener? Have you started any seeds yet? Let me know in the comments below what you are growing?
