January Garden Goals

After making the huge project list for 2012, I realized that I need to break it down into smaller lists.  28 things are a bit overwhelming!  Each month I'm going to focus on two or three projects.

Gardening Goals for January:

1. Finish potting shed - we (ok, really it's Jeff and I'm the assistant) built the workbench last weekend and this weekend the goal is to build the shelves.  Then the structures will be built and it'll just be prettifying the potting shed time.
2. Set-up my seed starting station - this requires the shelves in the potting shed to be finished, but I plan to put up two 4 ft lights, heating pads, get a container to store potting soil, and get trays washed and ready.
3. Start seeds! - yes, start seeds in January. I need to start broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, leeks (first time growing!), head lettuce, onion seed, parsley, and Chinese cabbage.
4. Build bed in front of potting shed - this is one of those 2012 projects.  I doubt I will finish this month, but I hope to get a good start. 
5. Asparagus - decide what type and how many asparagus I'm going to plant and order.  I also need to figure out where to plant them.
6. Harvest and weigh winter crops - it should be easy to keep up with the winter garden's slow pace.
7. Plan spring garden - I have the list of what I plan to grow and I've ordered seeds, however, I need to figure out where everything is going to be planted and how many seedlings I'm going to need.
8. Make seed starting journal - trying to do better at keeping data so that I can learn what works and what doesn't.
9. Clean and sharpen garden tools

Ok, need to stop before this list gets overwhelming!

Happy January gardening everyone!

Winter Stops By

Winter stopped by for two days this week, bringing temperatures into the teens.  This meant I had to actually use the row covers I was so excited about two months ago.  I had planned to only have one or two winter beds and thought I had plenty of fabric, but it turns out that my fall plantings were still thriving and I didn't want to loose them.  I ended up covering five beds, but didn't quite have enough fabric.  I was hoping the broccoli could handle the frost better than the lettuce, carrot, or radish, so they got the abbreviated cover.  I have also harvested most of the main crowns, but was hoping to keep harvesting side shoots.

Some of the leaves on the edge are a bit droopy, but it seems they survived.

In the lettuce, onion, and cauliflower bed, the romaine and leaf green lettuce did well while the mesclun mix is wilted.  I will have to remember that for next year's planting.  However, they were located on the end of the bed and it was a windy night and the row cover may not have stayed put too well.

The radishes look a bit droopy, carrots seem fine, and in the back is a pathetic artichoke plant.  Last spring I had a bout of impulse shopping at the farmer's market and bought an artichoke plant.  Even though I don't eat artichoke often, I thought I would if I grew it.  However, I got zero artichokes and hundreds of aphids this past year.  I was suppose to dig it up and store it for the winter, which you can see did not happen.  It's not looking too great... we'll see if it survives.

 

Another bed of carrots, beets, turnips, and some others also seems to have made it through the chill.

Domino has been working hard to clean up the leftovers in the garden, including cabbage leaves:

Temperatures are back up to the 60s, that is until Winter decides to stop by again.

Harvest Monday 1/2/12

The first harvest Monday of 2012 and the perfect time to begin my weighty garden resolution, which is simply to weigh my harvests.  I started an Excel sheet today and even though I still haven't bought a snazzy digital scale yet, I am accepting no excuses.  I am weighing my harvests! 

First up is the broccoli at 9oz:

 

It got covered in a cheddar sauce and was very yummy.  

The coldest weather of the winter is arriving on Tuesday night, so I decided to go ahead and harvest the rest of the cabbage.  They have not budged an inch in their size in about a month and they are showing signs of frost damage on their outer leaves.  I harvested the last four heads of cabbage, which were 4.5 lbs. 

Finally this week were a couple of turnips, weighing 1.3 lbs.  I only measured the roots because I've accepted the fact that I just don't like turnip greens.

That is all in my garden for the first harvest Monday of 2012, which is a whole lot more (6.5 lbs) than this time last year (0 lbs).  I'm very happy to have my first winter garden!

To see what others are harvesting check out Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.