Winter Gardening

 

There are things that can be done in January, and this year I have started some seeds off earlier than I usually do.

This seed-tray is already showing signs of sprouting and has only been sown a few days ago. One of the things to recognise is planting with the Waxing Moon, which seems to get seeds started much quicker. 

This is an experiment I mentioned in an earlier post; the roots and bottom of a lettuce is cut off and planted into damp compost. This has been done with an onion too. (I have used old foil dog-food trays to plant this year, to save these going to the recycling and over to China.)

These are the bottoms of onions planted last autumn and which have grown roots and tops during this time. We shall see how this goes in order to go further on these lines. (The idea here is to ensure that we can grow stuff even if we could not get the seeds or plants.)

This is a small Bay-Tree planted in a pot some years ago; it has remained very healthy and is useful as a herb. Without the pot this would grow very tall and these give many, many shoots, so keeping in a pot is the best way. 

Strawberries in a planter is a very good way to ensure early crops because these can be moved into the ploy-tunnel in late winter. I also grow in an old plastic dustbin which has holes around the outside and planted with strawberries in these and on the soil on top. This has a pipe used for watering. This stands outside the poly-tunnel and can be moved inside soon.

This small cold-frame is in the front garden on a raised bed, warming up the soil ready to plant in the next couple of months. Eggshells are scattered around the bed to keep the slugs at bay. 

This candle was put in the mini-greenhouse this morning after a frosty night; the temperature was 4 degrees Centigrade before and 12 degrees after about half an hour of warming up.

Having noticed how hot an empty jar left in the greenhouse was yesterday I decided to try to sown a few parsley seeds in it. Of course, it gets much colder overnight, but if I can find some insulation material (polystyrene) soon I'll cut a hole in it and place the jar inside to see what happens. The other seed-trays here are old Chinese Take-Away containers washed and used with their plastic lids.

Two water-barrels are connected to the main down-pipe in the front garden, and I have one at the back, together with 4 plastic dustbins adapted for the purpose. Another larger water-barrel feeds off one of the back sheds.

The mini-greenhouse also has six pots filled with compost and planted with roots of Peppermint and Garden Mint, the main plant of which is in a large container in the front garden.