Garden planning in January 2022

First things first, write down what you want to eat. Salads, chili, spaghetti, stir fry. Then figure out you need to make it. Next search for those seeds. Buy them. Plant them. I use Baker Creek Seeds and MI Gardener as well as our local farm stores.

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So far this is what I have purchased for 2022. I still need to get lettuce, green beans and tomatoes. I have peas left from last year.  I’ve been thinking about doing pinto beans to dry again this year. They take very little of my time and last time they produced great. 

The onions and potatoes I have always gotten from our local farm store. I get a little excited when they get them in. Last year I bought 70 onion bulbs and twenty potatoes. 

From now on after this year, I hope to not buy many seeds.  It only takes a few seeds from each plant to save. Although last year I saved thousands of Pepper seeds and one hundred pumpkin seeds. Pepper seeds are overly plentiful and maybe the easiest to save in my experience. But someone knocked the trays off the shelf and the mice at them before I noticed.  Yes, we have mice in the country. We know how to deal with them. No need to go jumping on the furniture. 

I did save some 2021 calypso beans. They look like a cow pattern.  So that’ll be an experiment to see if they grow the same. They’re heirloom, so they should grow the same bean every time.  I bought a new packet though just Incase. 

The plan is to let one of each plant, of all the heirloom seeds, go to seed. Then attempt to save seeds from them. Over time I will have a collection of seeds that is perfectly acclimated to my growing region. Just for myself. Not to sell. 

Over the year, I randomly buy seeds starting disks and soil. I save all manner of containers and trays to use.  I’ve tried saving money to buy things all at once. But for me, that never works well. So I buy them online throughout the year. You can never have too many seed starting disks or soil in my opinion. It’s very likely that I’ll use a couple hundred starting disks and 75-100 containers.

Last year, I had extra funds so I invested in a larger folding table and some of the bigger grow lights. But the 25 yrs before that, I grew everything on a couple of smaller folding tables infront of my south window. It’s not huge. But it worked. I grew everything we needed for tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, etc. that needed started indoors. I didn’t start them as early as I do now. We had more than enough food from the old way. My living room becomes a greenhouse. I love it every year. 

Thanks for reading this boring stuff about gardening. 😂 

The sun is out!

Yesturday's bad weather turned into a beautiful sunny day today.  I'm going out later to measure the garden and figure out square foot.  I'm expanding further to the west this year. 

I started tomatoes and peppers awhile ago. The tomatoes are coming up nicely in their pods.  The peppers are just barely starting to pop through the soil.  I used seeds from Baker Creek Seeds this year.  Baker Creek Seed Company  I'm not sure what they have left at this point.  I ordered mine in December and January.  If you want to do something local, find a farm store like Bomgaars, Fleet Farm, Tractor supply kind of stores.  They all have an abundance of seeds.  I plan on saving seed this year so I went with an heirloom seed company that's well known for seed saving. 

Right now I'm dealing with gnats.  I was using neem oil but ran out last week.  Trying to stay home and save lives, I haven't run to town to get more.  So now I have a ton of gnats.  Vinegar isn't getting them all.  So I'll have to run to the farm store and get some more neem oil and diatomaceous earth.  I think between both of them I can get a handle on the gnats in a couple of days.  

The celery appears to be doing well.  They were started back in January.  They take forever to grow and don't do well in the heat.  I hope to be able to plant them in the garden just after Easter in a couple of weeks.  

The mints that I cut and grew from last years crop are growing like gangbusters.  Mint Julep and peppermint.  I need to find a better place to hang the peppermint though.  I'm not sure it's getting enough sun.

Thyme, sage, and basil are all outgrowing their containers.  I should cut and dry them this week.  We'll see if I get to that or not.  

I started six mini tomatoes back in January.  Three of them grew. But that’s just how seeds work. The three that made it are doing great!  They should start producing tiny tomatoes mid to late April.

Having everyone home (which is 9 of us) until this coronavirus social distancing isn't necessary, takes up more time.  More laundry somehow.  More dishes.  More making food.  More pots and pans to wash.  Everyone is on dish duty rotation but it's still hard to keep up sometimes.  More sweeping and vacuuming floors with my handicap daughter making more messes.  Just more of everything.  I think everyone will be thankful to go back to school and not complain about it for awhile.