Getting The Jump In February

Thanks to my new friends at wintersown.org and the influence of the Gardenweb Forum (which I really have to stop perusing). I was out in the garden this weekend filling newspaper pots with a 50/50 mix of peat and compost. You can see the newspaper pots inside the gallon containers that have been halved. I then sowed the seeds mentioned in an earlier post. I put all of it in the corner of what will be my new raised bed. I am gonna have to break out the sieve for the rest of the Season because my compost needs sifting. I did not for this round and I hope my weekend plantings are not jeopardized. Come to think of it I think I'm going to make a new sieve that will fit over my wheelbarrow. It was a little windy Saturday but the sun felt good.

Once I got going I decided to add two flats that I had in the garage to the afternoons folly. I got the winter sowing done in the nick of time because it started to rain/sleet/snow in the afternoon.

I did not have time to re pot the evergreens we put in the house for Christmas. They have been outside for a while but the ultra small pots have been irking me. (I'm disheartened cause I think I didn't get to the rosemary on the left in time and it 'bout dead).

I also got the go ahead from my beautiful and lovely wife to use the wood from the old ikea bunk beds for my gardening devices. I'm thinking bean/hop trellis and yet another raised bed. Before and After pics of that to follow.

The Wintersown Seeds Have Arrived!

Yesterday evening I received my free seeds from Wintersown.org. the six pack they promised was more like an 11 pack including

• N American Wildflower blend
• Amaranth
• Clarkia elegens
• Echinacia Purpura
• Blue Anise
• Flat Sea Holly
• Asparagus
• Giant Italian Parsley
• Butterfly Bush
• and some heirlooms tomatoes

Thanks Trudi !

I can't Wait to get these in the the containers I made. I followed directions I found online for newspaper pots and milk container planters in the winter sowing section of the Garden Web Forum. I will post pictures after I have started sowing this weekend. The Garden Web Forum is awesome it has information on everything you would ever want to know about gardening.

I wish I could spend all day in my garden. I can't wait till the weather breaks and I can get my hands dirty. I love the anticipation in late winter. The possibilities are endless. I am imagining a huge hop vine trellised across my front porch and wildflowers beneath. Its weird, with other hobbies I've had (I'm thinking home-brewing specifically) any failure was a complete deterrent from trying again. With gardening however, it's different. There is a natural cycle to things in the garden. This may seem obvious but its strange how my entire way of thinking about this cycle deepens each year as well as my appreciation of life, i think.

The Worms are on the March in February

Today I purchased 1 lb of Eisenia fetida or redworms. They should eat about 1/2 a pound of food scraps a day according to my research. I am hoping to have enough castings to supply all of my beds by spring. I bought them from non-other than the Acme Worm Farm
http://www.acmewormfarm.com/

Twenty five bucks shipping included.

They sell worm castings online at http://dirtworks.net/ for $23.99 for a five gallon container (shipping not included)

So if I can get my worms to produce castings to fill half of my worm bin I will have broke even on the first batch and single-handedly saved the environment at the same time.

I'm feeling like the greatest person alive right now.

Primrose in January

First real post. Here are some primrose in January. I am in Zone 6/7 here in south New Jersey. The color on my ultra crappy digital camera made these primrose blue they were more like purple. I like the color in the picture better.




We had a really warm January http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/phi/reports/5dayavgtemps.html

That type of weather makes me crazy because you know in your heart you can't get out there and start dickering around in the garden so I instead took pictures of the fallow winter plot















and built a worm bin















I like these directions:

http://www.klickitatcounty.org/SolidWaste/ContentROne.asp?fContentIdSelected=991251662&fCategoryIdSelected=965105457

I also am going to try my hand at wintersowing and raised bed gardening.

Some of my goals for this season include but are not limited to:

• Grow a hop vine
• Grow worms in the worm bin
• plant successful raised beds
• successfully grow "Three Sisters" corn, beans and squash planted together

Coming soon, pictures of frames for raised bed gardens and pictures of wintersown containers.

Food Garden For Defense has been created

Ok Lets see how this goes. Welcome to Food Garden For Defense. I hope this will be a good place for me to post the trials of my garden this year 2007. I guess in true blog fashion it will be a place to express some thought on social issues as well.