Mulching Time

 Hi everyone. Just a quick update this week. We are in the middle of winter like everyone else in the northern hemisphere and sure enough bitterly cold temperatures are on their way. Since this the first year we've grown dutch irises, I wanted to give them just a little extra protection in case the temperature forecast gets revised lower at the last moment. One inch of mulch isn't very much but when spread out evenly could give the ground (and the bulbs in it) protection from the well below freezing winds and help maintain the soil temperature closer to the freezing point where no plant damage will occur. The daffodils, crocuses, and grape hyacinths should be fine with no extra protection here in zone 6b. I hope everybody out there stays warm wherever you call home.

Leggy Plants: How to stop seedlings from stretching

 

Anyone who has started seeds inside can tell what I did wrong in the first picture: I placed the seedlings in a sunny windowsill far too late. You can see in the second picture that I learned my lesson and put the seedlings in a sunny spot much earlier. This leads me to my best tip for preventing leggy plants: Have a perfect place for your seedlings to grow before you start them. Sounds like common sense right? Well, sometimes we get ahead of ourselves. I'm a gardener with a moderate amount of experience but even still I got excited about starting seeds and did that first. It is the middle of winter where I live so who could blame me for wanting to do a little indoor gardening? The point is that I didn't plan properly. When I saw my first seedlings, I had to scramble to create a good place for the plants to get some sun. Once you have set up a good location in a sunny area, you can start your seeds there and then you won't even need to move them once they germinate.

Marigold: The easiest flower to grow

 

There. I said it. Based on my own experience the marigold is the easiest flower in my climate. Dwarf French marigolds also happen to be one of my favorite flowers as well. They are the first flower that I was able to grow on a large scale. This was primarily because they have an incredible will to live. The seeds germinate quickly and the seedlings grow with impressive vigor. They can also handle a moderate amount of competition. Throw in the facts that they are good companion plants not to mention they are very pretty and you have arguably one of the best overall flowers that you could have in your garden. If you are going to have only a few types of flowers in your garden, I highly recommend that one of them be a variety of marigold from the tagetes patula specie as they seem to offer the most benefits.

A return to wood gravel instead of sand

 About a year ago, I experimented with the use of wood gravel for garden paths. The wood gravel worked well but took a long time to produce on my bandsaw. My next attempt was to use sand from a sandpit on my property for the foot paths. The sand is plentiful and it's easier to obtain a large amount. After testing the sand for about a month, it became clear there were problems. The sand would stick to my shoes though not nearly as bad as clay. It also moved off the paths too much in any spot that wasn't level. Lastly, the sand became part of the soil again too quickly to be of much use for a foot path. Because of these reasons I'm switching back to wood gravel. It takes much longer to make but is vital for any paths that change elevation. Another advantage is that I'm adding organic matter back to the garden.

Starting perennial herb and rhubarb seeds

We are having a colder than usual week here, so I decided it was best to do some work inside. In particular, it was time to start the cold hardy herbs. Here's a quick list of what seeds I'm starting:

Sage

Lovage

Horehound

Asparagus

Anise Hyssop

Wormwood

Last but definitely not least is rhubarb.

While the rhubarb is considered more a vegetable than a herb, now is still a good time to start it in my growing zone of 6b. All of these plants can be put outside in early spring as long as you put in the effort of hardening them off. Some of the seed is 3 to 4 years old now so I don't expect great germination rates from them all. I have the highest hopes for the rhubarb since it will produce plenty of edible stems in addition to being an impressive plant to view.
 

What's the dill with herbs?

 In addition to the poppies that I'll be growing this year, I also will be planting a large amount of dill and much smaller amounts of other herbs to have a deer resistant garden. Dill is one of my favorite herbs. Not only are both the seeds and the leaves delicious, they have been one of the most reliable annual herbs we've ever grown. The other herbs I want to try are anise, bulb fennel and coriander. All the herbs will have to wait until all chance of frost has past to go outside but they will still have plenty of time to make seed. The bulb fennel might take two years to make seed so we'll let you know how it turns out.

Hügelkultur Garden Border

 Hi everybody. Today I tried out an idea I've been considering for awhile now: using a hugelkultur to create a boundary between the garden and the rest of the yard. This has many useful advantages for me. Not only do I get to have a hugelkultur that functions as a low fence but my hay mulch is close by in the garden and the hay won't rot as fast since it is on top of wood. The hay mulch had originally been stacked up directly on the ground and the hay near the ground was in bad shape. This should make the hay last longer but also help the wood it is currently on decompose faster since the wood cannot dry out as quickly. I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!