Greetings fellow gardeners,
It is very snowy today. The too-many cats and I are enjoying the peace and quiet
while looking at seed catalogues and attempting to plan this year’s garden.
Regrettably, I seem to be far busier than I had wanted to be, so I am trying to get
ahead of that.
I have approached my garden a little differently this year. I want to be able to grow
more food especially food that I can keep for the winter. I would love to have soup
and stew ingredients that came from my garden, tucked away in my freezer. I am
reading more about canning and drying and have found that I prefer to dry my
herbs in the oven.
The garden season begins in January by starting my peppers. This year, I am trying
a small, sweet pepper for salads, and I am also hoping to have success with the
jalapeno seeds that I collected. While it is a good time to start peppers, it is way too
early to start most seeds. I have ordered seeds for sage and rosemary that I will
plant in long planters, and I want to dry them for the winter. I use a lot of sage in
cooking and make sage tea to keep me healthy. Rosemary adds such joy to winter
soups and stews. I know that several of you grow sage and rosemary in your house,
but I find it does not work for me. I think my house is too cold. In December, I was
given a Rosemary plant that I placed on the counter in the perfect spot.
Unfortunately, the too-many cats needed to taste it, and we had the Great
Christmas Tablecloth Disaster of 2024. Sigh.
My drawings for the 2026 calendar are underway, and this year I am going to
feature edible plants. I am hoping it will encourage people to add colour to their
vegetable patches. In addition to selling our cards, notebooks and totes, I have
started teaching an introduction to watercolour. Lots of fun.
I have been giving a few talks and love learning more about plants and garden
practices. Our Horticultural Society is preparing for the upcoming Seedy Saturday,
and there are packages of seeds being prepared. I hope I don’t end up with too
many more.
As I was looking out into the backyard, I grumbled to myself about that darn grape
vine on my archway. It showed up when a lot of the branches and trees came down
in a storm. I suddenly realized that I could just go outside and prune it right now! I
have a lot of pruning to do because of the trees that had fallen, and I kept avoiding
it because of the ticks. I have started pruning all of the things that needed pruning
now and no ticks are bothering me. A further benefit that I have found while doing
this is that I am outside enjoying my garden. I find I get a little down in the winter
and doing something that I know will look so nice later is a wonderful thing to do.
As I look out the window, the snow is lightly falling. The cardinals are a brilliant red
against the snow, and the chickadees are cheerfully enjoying their lunch. I have so
much to do and plan and figure out, but I am going to go outside and breathe in
this beautiful day. Enjoy your week. Judith. (Email: sghorticultural@gmail.com)
Veggie Bites are available at https://sghorticultural.wixsite.com/website or
Comments