My Winter Garden

This is my "winter" garden. It is indoors under a sunlight LED light that has a pink colour. The light is brilliantly pink. I have toned it down in the photos. The geraniums in the background are in full bloom all winter long, if I remember to feed them. I love geraniums indoors in the winter. They don't need much light and will get very large and bloom all winter, with a little regular feeding. 

The plants look a bit rough. I have two kittens, 5.5 mos old now, and they seem to like the plants. Some they even eat, like the spider plant I got from a special friend. They loved it. I had to protect it with small canvases I had on hand to paint. They don't eat the others, they just walk on them. I don't worry about it. I love my cats and they live here too. I'm just happy to keep the plants alive until they can go outside (the plants, not the kitties).

I keep small pieces of  important herbs growing here over the winter, in case the ones outdoors don't make it  until spring. I have chocolate mint, lavender, sage, purslane, feverfew, rosemary and probably a few others I have forgotten about. I use the feverfew for migraines. The tea works very well! I dry the leaves all summer and use it for headache tea all winter too. It works as well as the fresh leaves to lift the weight and relieve headaches. 

I grow the purslane because it is a killer bug bite relief! Really, its amazing! It grows as a rampant weed all over in Ontario and in Kelowna, just not up here, sadly. I used to be able to just pick a leaf anywhere, rub it on a bite of any kind and the swelling and itching would be gone in just a couple of minutes, never to return. I can't do that up here, but I do make a bug bite salve with it, as well as the plantago and yarrow that do grow wild up here. I sell it occasionally, when I make a large amount. I sell small samples for $2 and 120g large containers of it for $20, as long as I have enough for us to use all summer. We like it because its all natural. I do use the deet spray occasionally, when hiking in the woods but I try to avoid it if possible. 

Purslane & Feverfew

I also start veggies from the grocery store under this light. These are green onions I started from the onion bottoms. They will go outside soon. They get huge in the garden and reseed everywhere. I love garden volunteers! Again, they would look a lot better if Shadow and Abby didn't walk on them...

Under this winter light is also a container of seeds that were outside all winter until yesterday. I brought them in under the light to sprout. They are seeds that need stratification (a winter to germinate) so I am hoping they will start to sprout soon! I planted them in December in a large, round plastic container with a lid. I put it outside in Dec to spend a couple of months in the winter temps. This is called "winter sowing". In the big snowfall, I shoveled them off the deck, forgetting they were there and I just found them yesterday, intact! (I'm thrilled. I had some valuable seeds in there. It was upside down, so I'm hoping the seeds didn't fall out.) Now I wait to see if they come up. I have had winter sowing success in the past.

winter sowing in previous years

One of the special herbs I grow indoors is chocolate mint. To the right of the geraniums in this picture. I love it! it really does smell and taste like chocolate mint. I cut and dry it all summer and use it in tea, put it in my coffee, grind it and bake with it. I made a gallon of chocolate mint wine a few years ago and loved it! I plan to do that again this year. It grows like a weed, just like every other mint. (See previous post "Using All That Mint" for ideas.)

I gave many small rooted chocolate mint cuttings away this winter and warned everyone to keep it in a container. You can see runners spreading out of the pot in the picture left.  

It's not all practical. I do have a few ornamental houseplants in there too - just little ones. I have a Christmas cactus, lipstick plant, begonia, pothos and what remains of the spider plant. They don't look that well, like I said, the cats walk on them...As soon as the others are out of there, and I have time, I plan to repot these and take better care of them. 

This pink light shines very brightly outside my window at night. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm growing something ELSE in there! lol! 

A Winter Sewing Success Story

Back in January, I posted about this year's wintersowing. You can read that post called, "Wintersowing". (I'm not big on fancy, complicated titles...)

That project was a success! I only got around to planting one thing in pots, the echinacea "Double Decker" and it's up! I did plant a lot more seeds in a cold frame. I will have to check those today to see if they have sprouted, as well!

I'm so thrilled! The echinacea "Double Decker" looks like this.

OK, now that I know it does work, I will be trying other things next winter.

I have done wintersowing before but never had much success with it. I think it's because I used shallow trays (top picture) that dried out too quickly. This year I used a soda pop bottle cut in half.

A Sunny Winter Walk

 

I took advantage of a day off at work and some beautiful winter sun to get a few things done around the home. The picture above is of our mailbox and the line of spruce trees that protect us from the road. They are beautiful trees and such a straight line, too. Hmmm, they must have used a string for that.

It’s this mailbox that was on the top of the “to-do” list today. It needed to be put back in place before the postman came. Hubby brought it in from the field on the way home from work yesterday. We are in a never ending battle with the snow plow over our space requirement for the mailbox. How much space does one little mailbox use? Can the driver of the county snow plow not see our black mailbox in all that white snow? Does he/she have some hidden agenda to rid the countryside of all mailboxes? Are these mailboxes a threat? In my frustration at constantly having to redo the mailbox I have considered a 1′ wide cement pillar sunk 3′ into the ground as my next mailbox post, but I can’t put anything permanent there that will damage the snow plow. ( It would be a difficult thing to do, damaging the snow plow, as the plow implement attached to the tractor is taller than I am.) Can we not work something out here? If the county snow plow drivers will leave my mailbox where it stands, I promise it will never jump up and bite them. That’s a fair trade-off, don’t you think?

When I first moved to the country I bemoaned the fact that my mailbox listed to one side, as it is attached to a post just barely being held in place by cement blocks. I was told that it is that way for a reason and there is no point in sinking the post into the ground. The snowplow will just take it out on its way by. I have seen some beautiful and creative mailboxes in the country. I wonder how they keep them in place. Do they bribe the snowplow drivers with coffee or hot chocolate as they drive by? That is something I have considered, as well, but I could never just stand there for hours in the hopes that the plow would come. The coffee would be cold by then and I would be frozen. Naw…not worth it.

I have seen one innovation that I would love to make. A mailbox attached to a long pole that stretches 12′ out to the road from a fence post. The pole is attached to the fence post with hinges so it is just pushed aside by the plow and springs back into place after it has gone by. Now that’s a brilliant idea! Look for updates on the mailbox problem in years to come. I don’t say “this year” because I have a long list of more immediate things to do before I can get that far down the to-do list, however, if I have to replace the mailbox too many more times this winter, it will move up on the “to-do” list.

I did a little snow shovelling. Even with a snowblower for the driveway we still need to clear the smaller areas.I had to shovel out the gate into the chicken pen so I could go in there and open their door. They need sunshine too. Being the spoiled gals that they are, I had to shovel some snow away from their door, as well. I also went inside and shooed them out with the shovel. I put lots of treats outside for them. It wasn’t long before they were out in the sunshine. It is not that cold today and they have been shut up indoors through most of the long, hard winter. Come out, come out, wherever you are!

We also need to shovel the snow from the wood pile. The ice from the shop roof has fallen on it and covered most of it. Can’t get that stuff with the snowblower, much as I’d like to give it a try. We still need that pile of wood for the wood stove. It’s not THAT warm today. 

 

This sits beside the wood pile. The winter farmer’s best friend!

 

 

 

 

Our secured and locked cellar door! I adore real fieldstone! The inside of the cellar is fieldstone too. There is another door into the cellar and basement from inside the house. I am planning on writing a piece called “Root Cellars, How to Make Them and How to Use Them” in the near future.

I continued on my sunny day walk. Look! footie-prints in the snow. It’s probably that squirrel that I see on the porch almost every day. Yep, they go across the yard, over the well casing and up the stairs to the deck-porch.

This is the squirrel that has discovered my stash of acorns for putting on grapevine wreaths.

 

Sure enough, he’s been in the acorns and eaten most of them. No wonder he likes my front porch so much! (I grew up in Tennessee. I have spent most of my adult life in Canada but I still say things like, "sure enough". Occasionally I might be caught saying, "y'all". It comes back when I'm tired or have been watching a very southern person on TV.) 

These are the pinecones I saved for the wreaths. We will probably use most of them for fire starters. I never did get those wreaths decorated. Here they are drying, waiting patiently for spring and what’s left my the acorns. 

 

These are the grapevine wreaths I made in the summer, drying on the porch. I have great plans for those next year!
 

 

The fierce protecting farm dog has decided that it is indeed a nice day and comes out with me. He decides not to brave the snow and ice today and just wanders around on the deck. After all, he is 14 years old. He may be mellow now but he was a force to be reckoned with in his younger days! All the neighborhood kids were afraid of him and he chased anything that moved. 

 

 

Also on our porch is winter greenery. See, you, too can have greenery in the winter. It’s called “plastic” and could be a new and innovative idea for farm decorating! Get yours while they are still available at every Walmart!

 

 

My new brugs are enjoying the winter sun too! These are brugmansias. They are beautiful tropical plants. I got cuttings from trading all over the world for them. They grow inside in the winter with the houseplants. (See my post "Growing Brugmansias".)

 

 

 

I see my winter sowing on the deck. There are many, many tiny seeds planted in these containers under the snow. When the warm spring sun warms them up and shines on them, they will sprout and be protected under the cover of the plastic tops – just like mini greenhouses. Winter sowing is a great way to start new seeds and to get my hands in the dirt in the middle of January when the ground outside is frozen. I love the smell of dirt. I have to smell dirt even if it is winter!

We do BBQ in the wintertime. When we lived in a subdivision, many years ago, our neighbors thought we were a little “off” for firing up the BBQ in -20 temps. I don’t know what the big deal is. I think we are privy to some information that they are not… it’s not cold in front of the BBQ.

Well, back to work. I have such a long to-do list for this winter. I don’t think I will ever get it all done. The next job is building a large bat house with my new radial arm saw. I love power tools!