January=Garden Planning

National Seed Swap Day is the last Saturday of January

I spent some time preparing for National Seed Swap Day by harvesting zinnia, marigold, and flaming celosia seeds from the dead flower heads I collected at the end of last summer. It's easy and very gratifying because these little seeds are free and they will produce beautiful plants in your garden this summer.

Watch my video showing the process of collecting seeds from your dead flowers.

I will bring 20 packets of seeds to the event I am attending on January 27 in Maryland. And I will leave with lots of new seeds for my garden this year! #SEEDSWAPDAY is a way to meet other gardeners in your community and learn about flowers, vegetables, and herbs that you may have never heard of. Like last year I got some seeds for a variety of tomato called Abraham Lincoln. Who knew! Search for a seed swap in your area.

The seeds above will grow into this beautiful plant.

 

Garden Planning

Garden planning gets me through the long cold winter and helps with my success this summer. I have time to dream about my outdoor space and what I want it to be this year. During the COVID period when I was working from home five days a week and not leaving the house except for the grocery store, I started looking at my outdoor space in a different way. It brought me serenity every day whether I was working in the dirt, cutting flowers for bouquets in the house, eating my lunch on the patio, reading in the evenings, and so many other ways. It became part of the living space of my home. I had never looked at it that way before.

It's Time to Start Seed Saving

Now is the time to start saving seeds, when your garden is in full, beautiful bloom. I save zinnia, marigold, and green beans for seed swapping and growing next year. This year I am going to experiment with saving tomato seeds.

(Clockwise) Tomatoes, sunflower, zinnias, nasturtium

Saving Flower Seeds

I posted previously about this process. I am a voracious dead-header and I always have cut flowers in my house so I identify a few flowers that I am going to leave on the plant to completely dry up so I can collect the seeds. The larger the seed, the easier it is to save. If you have a favorite flower in the garden this year, consider saving seeds for next year. 

Saving Vegetable Seeds

I grow green and wax beans every year so I save seeds from the varieties I really like and/or grow well in my climate. If you want to save green beans, leave a few beans on the plant. You will see the pod dry up and the seeds will get very hard. That's when you can harvest the seeds for next year. Be sure to mark the container with the information you need for next spring. Side note: leave your green bean plants in the ground because they will add nitrogen to your soil.

This year I am going to experiment with saving tomato seeds from some of the heirloom varieties I am growing. I start all of my tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid, from seed. This year I have Abraham Lincoln, Thessaloniki, Brandywine Pink, Tula Black, Parks Whopper, Big Rainbow, Black Cherry, Large Red Cherry, and Red Pear. My source is seed swapping (watch for Seed Swap Day in your area, it's usually at the end of January) primarily. 

Apart from the Black Cherry, I have not gotten any ripe tomatoes yet this summer, but all of my plants have a lot of fruits and very few dead leaves that would indicate disease. Once they ripen they will be ready for seed saving - and eating! I did some research and there a couple of ways to save seeds from your tomatoes and I will share in a later post.

Note that saving hybrid seeds won't replicate the plant you have this year. According to The Spruce, "Seeds from hybrid tomatoes, while they may sprout and grow, often produce tomato plants that revert to one of the genetic parent plants, which can produce much different fruit than you're expecting."

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Early August in the Garden

We had a very cool and dry spring here in the DMV which impacted the vegetables in particular. I am sure the tomatoes suffered because they are a tropical plant. I have also noticed the dahlias are much smaller this year, but that is actually okay for me because they aren't all falling over and looking messy. What has not suffered is the sunflowers, they are looking so good. And the strawberries are coming back! I had a fantastic crop in May, we were eating them everyday. I knew I have a mix of June bearing and everbearing in my little plot so the everbearing are the plants that are flowering again.

Green tomatoes

Sunflower

Strawberries

 

Nasturtium

Three Trusty Garden Education Resources

 January is the time of year I like to spend learning more about what I can do to help my gardens thrive, whether it is improving the soil, tips for keeping ahead of weeds, how to grow something new in vegetable bed, or just getting back to basics because there is always something to learn. I wrote this blog post back in 2018 and it is still useful.

There are so many free and low-cost resources for gardening inspiration and education. I have three trusty resources.

#1.   The best overall resource for me is social media. I follow a number of gardeners on Twitter and Instagram. I follow gardening hashtags like #gardendc and #gardenplanning, garden shops, and other plant-related organizations like house museums and botanical gardens. Beautiful pictures and instructional videos enhance the experience.

Nasturtium

 

 

 

 

#2.   One of the silver linings of the of the pandemic is the adoption of online learning and Zoom. Now I do not have to drive anywhere to hear gardening experts in my area AND I can access speakers near and far.  I do prefer speakers who are in my physical area because they are most likely going to present in the context of my climate in the mid-Atlantic so the plants they talk about will most likely be compatible with my area. Often the speaker’s presentation will be recorded, too.

#3.   I also love the library because it’s free and the collection is vast. Browsing the stacks at your local library is a good place to start, but also look at the online catalog and request books. They usually are ready for pick-up in a few days.

What winter means when you are a gardener

If you are new to gardening, winter might not seem like a very active time for your hobby. But that is not true. Gardening is a year round activity.

1. Winter is the time for planning for the next growing seasons. I find it is exciting to think about what is possible. Have some fun flipping through seed catalogs and library books. The sky is the limit, nothing fails, you have all the time and money you need! Capture your ideas in a notebook or other method, no matter how big or small, because you probably won’t be able to do everything this year, but you will capture your ideas for the future.
   
   
2. Planning is really important, too, because you want to be ready to start planting in the spring. You need the dirt to be ready, you need some plants to stick in the ground or your containers, you need some seeds to plant, you might need a new tool or a new pot. Nothing is more frustrating when you pick a Saturday morning to start planting and you realize you can’t find your trowel or your container is cracked.
   
   
3. Finally, planning is easier on your budget, because you can spread your spending out over many months rather than having a weekend-long spending spree. It will limit impulse buying when you are standing at the garden center, completely overwhelmed.

 #gardengoals

I am not a trained farmer, I don’t have any education in horticulture or botany. I simply have an interest in growing things. I work full-time and have a family that takes a lot of my attention so I do not have unlimited time. And it is just me doing most of the work. (My honey loves the flowers that I grow every summer, but he is not interested in helping me with projects and I have accepted that.) I also have a limited budget for plants, tools, amendments, and labor. But I do have beautiful gardens every year and I have a lot of fun and get a lot of pride and satisfaction growing flowers, vegetables, and herbs.

Setting #gardengoals keeps me focused because I am one person and I can only do so much in 12 months. If I am puttering around week after week without focus, the things that need attention don’t get done. Concentrating on a small number of things ensures that least a few things are actually completed every year. 

Take a few minutes this week and write down the things you really want to accomplish this year. Maybe it’s grow a tomato or create a rose bush hedge or start composting. Here's my list:

1. Clear another bed near the dahlia bed 
2. Replace the rotted raised vegetable bed
3. Keep the new crepe myrtle alive
4. Figure out the bed near the shed – is it shady? part shade? full shade? Why do I hate that section of the yard so much even though it is so central to the backyard?
5. Try growing two new summer vegetables
6. Dress up the patio with larger rectangular planters to hide the utilities

Back in 2019, I made my garden goals public by posting them here in my blog. Looking back recently at this post, I recognized that I actually met most of the goals I set! I am proud of myself. Maybe I am better at keeping goals than I thought?

Start here

Over the next few blog posts, I am going to share some simple steps to get you started growing flowers and vegetables. I am excited to help you get started on your gardening journey no matter where you are growing. It could be your windowsill or some pots on your patio or stoop. Maybe you have a plot in your community garden or have some space in your backyard. All of those places are excellent places to grow some plants. Starting something new can be overwhelming. Start small, be realistic, and have fun with your successes and failures. So start with writing down a few goals for this year and check back through the spring and summer to see how you are progressing.

Saving seeds is easy but takes time and a bit of patience

Harvesting seeds for the spring

Seed saving saves money, provides you with extra seeds to share with other gardeners (watch for #seedswapday on January 29, 2022), and ensures that you can grow the same plants the next year. Like this summer, for example, there was a particularly beautiful yellow zinnia in my garden. Saving the seeds from that plant will allow me to grow that flower again next year. This whole process starts during the growing season.

This short video will illustrate how to recognize zinnia seeds on your dried flower blossoms.

How to start

Later in the summer in my flower beds and vegetable garden in Maryland, I intentionally keep a few flowers or vegetables on the living plants so I can save the seeds to use the next year. For example, I keep a good number of zinnia blooms on their plants so they can die and dry out on the plant. That is the important part because the seeds have to form. It is kind of ugly having dried up, crunchy flowers on a living plant, but it is really worthwhile.

And don’t wait until the very end of the season. I have had the experience of an unusually early hard frost that killed many of my plants before I had a chance to save any seeds!

Now Is the Time to Plant Tulips and Daffodils

Don’t you love early spring when the outdoors starts to come back to life? You are slogging through the worse part of winter and then all of sudden you see an early flowering tree, the Cherry Blossom forecast is part of the nightly news (here in D.C. anyway), and the first electric-yellow daffodils in your neighbor’s yard appear. These are the first indications that spring is really coming.

Tulips and phlox in April.

Adding those early daffodils, tulips, and hyacinth to your home’s landscape is easy and affordable. I can’t tell you how cheerful those bobbing flower-heads can be!

Cut daffodils.

BULBS ARE EASY TO FIND

This time of year, along with the Christmas-themed inflatables, you can find a small but very nice selection of hardy bulbs at your neighborhood big box or hardware store. I even saw them in the grocery store today. Hardy bulbs are planted once in the fall and then left in the ground, and are the source of daffodils, tulips, and other early spring flowers.

START SMALL

Start small because planting bulbs on a cold fall day is not that fun. But but but – the pay off!! And you can probably get 15 bulbs for about $10.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT LOCATION

I am big proponent of enjoying your garden from the inside of the house. If you are working from home a lot more these days, choose a spot from your “office” window so you can enjoy them all day long.

Bulbs should be planted is a well-drained area of the your yard. The amount of sunlight does not really matter that much because the leaves are not on the trees when bulbs are popping up.

They don’t even have to be put in a prepared bed. I have a bunch of daffodils under the lawn. By the time the grass is ready to mowed for the first time, the flowers are long gone. Think of succession planting! (Note that there will green leaves that should stay attached to the bulbs until they naturally die and can be easily pulled off.) 

Bare bulbs, roots on the bottom.
Photo credit Univ. of Minnesota Extension

PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Like I mentioned above, bulbs should be planted in late fall in well-drained area of the your yard.
2. Dig a hole about 6 inches deep and plop one bulb, facing the right side up, in the hole.
3. Plant your bulbs about 6 inches apart.
4. I would recommend digging the holes and placing all the bulbs before covering them back over with dirt. That way you can see where they are and check the spacing.
5. I have heard stories of squirrels digging up bulbs, but I think if you dig them deep enough – truly 6 inches, no cheating – you should not have a problem.