As I am trying to settle into this winter I am beginning to see just how important it is to have this “break” that winter forces a gardener into. If we had not stepped back indoors on some cold Sundays we may have never gotten around to doing some of the things that sitting and thinking allow. I know I am happy that we have loaded the barn with firewood, I mean loaded, I would bet that as hard as we are trying to burn all of the wood that we’ve collected over the last couple of years we will still have enough to get us through next winter. It might be nice to clean it all up and start all over after next winter. Some of the wood makes its way for our fire ring at camp but most of it burns in our fireplace. Often when Mimi gets up she starts a fire just for coffee time before work. It makes it hard to leave the house on a chilly morning. I get my wood from the same tree company that we use in our yard and sub all of our tree removal jobs. I can get big loads any time of the year and usually replenish in the summer when they have had time to split some. By storing it in the barn the wood can really dry out. Apparently one man’s definition of “seasoned” wood is not the same for everyone. I have learned my lesson with that. Having green wood is no fun, I like my wood to easily start, it burns faster but that is okay by me.
So far getting trapped inside on a few Sundays has fueled lots of new ideas for our home garden and our garden center. At home we have decided to line all of or interior fences in our veggie garden with raised beds that will match the raised beds that have so far been enough for our production of home grown. We are adding 6 new beds that are 14 feet long by 2 feet wide and 2 more that are 10 feet long. The reason we are lining our garden fence is that we have seen how much space pole beans and cucumbers and any of the other vining plants can take up. Our cucumbers that wound up growing on trellises last year lasted so much longer and produced better cuts than we have ever had. Getting that airflow underneath all that crazy cluster of vines is so important to keep blights and fungus away, plus they are way easier to harvest. When the cucumbers begin to produce heavily we check the vines daily. If we miss a smaller one the day before it will likely be too big for my liking the next day. It’s way easier to find them when they are being grown vertically. Not to mention how aggressive and greedy the vines can get when planted with other plants. We are glad to move them away from the other more satisfiable plants that just sit there and get taken advantage of. We have begun planting a lot more flowers in our veg garden and I would rather not see them get smothered out.
The beans that we like to grow, Scarlet Runner Beans and Kentucky Wonder pole beans are also very aggressive and need to be picked daily will also get their own wall of wire fence to grow vertically on so we can pick from both sides while we chat. I will have sweet peas growing up some obelisks in the center of some of the beds and I will allow them to cascade down some rock walls that we have around outside the garden. Sweet peas blooms will probably be short lived depending on how quickly the Heat Mizer moves in this spring. I did some experimenting with sweet peas this past fall. They are still healthy and green with no blooms, I assume that is related to the day length not being enough just yet, I would expect to see some April blooms. It has surprised me that they have been cold hardy down to 25 degrees so far. I imagine they will be further tested to lower temperatures before it’s all over with. We still have February to endure. We always plant yellow wax beans which are a bushing type. They can come in to the interior beds since they can behave themselves. Wax beans are our favorite, barely steamed they have a crunch and a flavor that says summer time in Mississippi. By adding all of this new planting space we are allowing ourselves to turn some of our beds into cut flower beds set up with trellis netting and the new space will allow us to try out some new stuff along with the plants that we know we will grow. Our tomatoes and peppers need some elbow room and we didn’t have enough space for all of our leafy lettuces and Bok Choi that we like to have along with our herbs. We have one bed that we’ve completely given over to asparagus except for now when I grow Swiss chard during the winter months while the asparagus takes a break. We have some beautiful broccoli that is ready for harvest right now. We like to leave the edible part on the plant until we are ready to cook one that night. We had one of them last night. It was so good. It tasted nothing like the ones that we buy at the grocery store. Like all produce that you grow yourself, it always tastes so much better when it comes out of your garden, there is really no comparison. The only way to get close to that kind of freshness without growing it yourself would be to join a CSA like Two Dogs out in Flora where you will weekly receive a fresh box of some of the most beautiful and fresh picked produce the state has ever seen. The other choice is to go to a pick your own kind of place. When it comes right down to it nothing tastes better than something that you nurtured from the beginning to the end.
We get our garden beds from MetalGardenBeds.com. They can be different lengths and configurations, different colors and have held up very nicely. We like them because it allows you to be in control of the type soil that you use for every situation. It is also a really good look with the silver corrugated sides. The beds are easy to add irrigation to. I have a valve at the base of each bed so I can manipulate each one separately as the plants get bigger and the temperatures begin to climb. I have the whole veg garden set on one solenoid valve so it can become just another zone on my irrigation system for when summer gets here and a regular pattern of water needs gets solid. It’s nice to have for when we will be away for a number of days in the summer. I will admit the garden beds come as well packed as they can be but that leaves us with a lot of screws and nuts to turn. My hands are a little cut up from working with those tin panels but it will be worth it to have our beds freed up for more, more, more!
We know that there will be many more new plants to try this spring because I have my seed chamber complete now. I have converted our walk- in produce cooler into a warm chamber for our seedlings to start in. The walls are so thickly insulated to keep produce cold they also work really well to keep a warm room. I have been experimenting with a small electric convection heater like what you can buy at the hardware store. So far on a below freezing night I can easily keep that room at a constant 70 degrees by turning the heater on its lowest setting. I was so excited to see how easy that part was going to be. I had originally set out to create a warm spot in one of our large greenhouses. It was going to take a lot more energy and there were a lot more unknowns and uncertainties doing it in a big, open space like that. With this room I built racks with shelves that some will provide darkness and bottom heat for germination. The racks that don’t have bottom heat will be lit with LED lights so that as soon as the seeds have germinated they will be moved to the lit racks with their domes still on them to conserve warmth and to keep them with a little humidity since the heater tends to dry the air out quite a bit.
These chilly Sundays have allowed me to make my seed orders and find all the supplies for this project. The room is warm, racks built, heat pads are laid out and the supplementary lights are hung. All I need now is to get one more trip to New Orleans to visit Chip and Susan with some friends in my rear view mirror. I can’t start this until I am ready to slip into the seven days a week program. I can’t leave the seeds unattended for any time since they will be germinating very quickly in this perfect environment. I will have fans lightly blowing across the seedlings once the domes are removed to give them more stem strength to prepare them for the next phase which will to move them out of the room to an open air greenhouse where they will harden off further before getting planted into our 4 inch pots. At that point they will be available to our customers and, of course, available for me and Mimi to bring some home to try out for ourselves. The room I have created will give me something to keep myself excited about every day (and every night since I won’t be able to sleep). It will also be a nice and warm spot to work on those blustery days when I just need to hide out yet be productive at the same time. I wouldn’t want Mimi to find me goofing off and fire me, or would I? I’ll have to ponder that one on another chilly Sunday. I invite you to stop by sometime so I can show you my setup, maybe I can answer some questions that you may have about starting your seeds at home or better yet maybe you can answer some of my questions that will be arising. Mimi has been taking note of my progress and will making available all things propagation. Micro green seeds and trays with domes, bulb forcing supplies, LED grow lights and tools for propagation. Seeding your own plants from home then carrying the plants straight through the process to harvest could be something that is so much fun, easy and exciting. Trail and error is the most fun part of gardening to me or you can call it R and R (research and development) if that sounds better. It is a sure way to shake off the winter chilies and get yourself moving.