Category Archives: Winter gardening

Farewell for a season, with one final tip

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As we enter the winter holiday season, many have put their gardens away for the year and are taking a much needed break from the work but hopefully benefited with an abundant harvest. I wish you the best of what the season has to offer and hope to see everyone again in a few months. 

My last tip of the year is for those who want to get an early jump on the spring season. It requires no work after seeding the tray. Simply take a plastic container of your choice (Costco rotisserie chicken carton is great), moisten some potting mix and then fill the container up to the top. Spread seeds generously over the surface, cover with a fine layer of soil, water in gently, and then cover it up. I take a screwdriver and heatit over an open flame on the stove to then push through the top in order to create holes to vent. At this point, place it outside in the area that gets the most sun during the winter months. Do no work. It will be slower to germinate at this time of year but it’lll work. Especially as the days start to get longer during the last week of January. 

The time will come when you’ll want to seperate your seedlings up to plant in the garden. You’ll have so many transplants!  Like maybe 75! One of the best things is they require no hardening off. They’ve been accustomed to and have grown in the harsh weather conditions for months. Depending on your weather, you won’t need to water until late February or early March. It may be earlier if you live in a warmer climate. Just don’t let it dry out in the spring.

For those interested, I will have many new classes available next year. All virtual so you can learn from the comfort of your home. These will include: square foot gardening 101 for beginners, 201 for advanced square foot gardeners, making compost, seed starting, the earliest spring garden, growing micro-greens at home, the fall garden, and the winter garden. Lots of work to be done on my end but I think you’ll enjoy them. Especially as we go to the market and discover lettuces are now $4 a head! More for organic. And, probably going higher. Learn how to be a great gardener without the hard work and hassles of the traditional garden. Square foot gardening really is the way to go. No heavy digging, no hard work, no thinning, no weeding, no kidding. See you on the other side. 

The efficiency of a square foot garden

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This might look like a boring picture but there’s a lot too see. The pole coming out of the ground was once a  very thriving cherry tomato plant growing vertically in only 1 square. That’s it. Our evening temperatures have been mid- low 50’s and that marks a change with tomatoes. It changes the  quality of the taste and they become mushy and begin to fall off. There were still a lot of green cherry tomatoes on the plant but there’s not enough time for them to ripen. 

Looking more closely, you’ll notice 3 areas of lettuce coming up in the front of the square. I planted this a couple of weeks ago so that it will be perfectly timed to grow before the freeze hits. It’ll only be baby lettuce leaves, but these hold up much better than their more mature lettuces which turn soupy after a couple of freezes. 

I want to make sure my new lettuces get all the sun possible at this time of year. If I pulled up the entire tomato plant it would uproot the lettuces which you see growing. So, I will simply cut off the branches and the lower stem and now I have a square that will grow into winter. I’ll leave the stem in the ground until the lettuces are harvested. 

Beginning in January, this single square housed 25 carrots, 9 spinach plants, an 8′ cherry tomato plant, and now 3 heads of leaf lettuce which will remain until late December or early January. 

Not bad for one square foot. I’ve got 174 of them. 🙂

Winter planting the square foot gardening

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Winter gardening in northern Utah isn’t really gardening. It’s all harvesting. That means a little extra planning. The important point isn’t really the average first frost date but rather the first day we go under 10 hours of sunlight. For us, thats around November 14th. This is just one of my 4X4 SFG boxes planted for the winter. So far, the timing looks good. What’s in there? Lots. Three different kinds of lettuces, green onions, arugula, minutina, claytonia, spinach, turnips, mache, red pontiac potatoes, and tatsoi. They all love the cold and even freezing weather, except the lettuces. The baby leaf lettuces will easily make it right through the winter months. Get those gardens planted!!! 

Thinking about the winter square foot garden

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Here it is-almost the second week into July and we’r already talking winter. Though lots of fun summer harvesting is still ahead, it’s time to think about what needs to go into the winter garden. In a few weeks it’ll be too late to think about crops such as leeks, and green onions. You certainly won’t be able to find them in the nurseries around here. And what ever happened to parsnips? Nobody grows them anymore! If you’ve not tried them you should. They are so good in the winter garden as the colder temperatures make them very sweet. I’ve always started these three crops this way. The reason? I’m not telling yet. But you’ll see when they are harvested. You can grow them better than anything you’ll find at the market.

I’ll have a few gardening classes coming up for those interested. The first couple will be the fall square foot gardening class. Immediately after that will be the square foot garden winter classes, complete with how to build protection, what crops do well here, and when to plant. These are both done at my home in a very comfortable setting where you learn how to do it. 

Come Labor day when most people start thinking it’s time to close the garden, yours will be up and producing a huge harvest. Stay tuned. 

Herbs-parsley

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Its early but I’m putting out some of my parsley in grow bags. For those who have never used them, you might give them a try. They are made out of a soft fabric and will last for years. I now grow most of my herbs in these because I need the room in the regular garden for other crops.

The great thing(s) about these is they come in all sorts of sizes. This is a 5 gallon grow bag and thats all I need for my herbs. You can pick them up and move them around because they have handles, which is an advantage over the Smart Pot grow bags. You get healthy air-pruned plants that are easily contained. My favorites are from 247 Gardenmate. You can find them here. Mine are 5 years old and show no signs of wearing out.