Start Now: Plant a Garden (even if it's the middle of Winter)

Okay, it's not the middle of Winter now...but it was when we planted our garden.  January 22nd to be precise.  If you were ever going to plant a garden in the middle of Winter, this was the year to do it!  More often than not, the temperature was in the 50's or higher during the day, and there were many nights where we didn't even have to cover the garden.  I researched cold hardy varieties and we decided to go with the square foot garden method.  John and Tim built the box, and I tracked down compost, peat moss, and a huge bag of vermiculite...in the middle of Winter.

 

We've talked quite a bit as a family about how realistic it is or isn't to do things like growing and preserving our own food in addition to our already full schedules.  One of the best ways to figure out is by trying.  We want to form new habits now, doing everything we can, so that when we do find our new home, we're not changing everything all at once.  Plus, we get to enjoy fresh, organic produce right from our back yard.

If you live in a place that is warm enough (and Oklahoma is warm enough), many things, mostly greens, can grow through the winter if you take care to cover them when it's below freezing.  We planted spinach, 2 varieties of cabbage, kale, arugula, and lettuce.  The arugula, spinach and lettuce did very well, while the other things struggled a little more.  We didn't plant all the squares because the idea was to succession plant.

Things started off slow and then took off as the weather grew warmer, as you can see in the pictures below.  We've enjoyed our greens several times now.

Because we're trying to get ready to move, we haven't made additional beds or planted all of the squares, but I'm looking forward to a permanent place, more space, and hopefully, eventually more time to try more things.

-Kendra

Arugula - 20, 30, 50 and 60 days after planting.

Overall garden - 20, 30, 50 and 60 days after planting.