You don’t need a big backyard to have a vegetable garden. If you don’t have an area around your home to plant vegetables, consider container gardening. You can grow many delicious vegetables or herbs in containers in very little space. You can use a window sill, deck, patio, or porch.  All you need is sunlight and rich soil.

If this is your first year for a garden you will need to choose your site.

Sunlight:

Choose a site that gets a lot of sunlight. You will want at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day.  Although 8-10 hours is much better.

Close to Home:

Pick a site that is close to your house. Having a site close to your house will be easier for you to water, weed, and keep critters out.

Soil:

Loose, well drained, and rich soil is what you will need to have a successful garden. Adding organic matter will improve clay or sandy soil.  

Water:

You will want to locate your garden near water. The closer to the spigot or other water source, the more chances of you watering your garden often.

Avoid low spots, like at the bottom of a hill. These areas will stay cooler longer and water may pool in the area. 

If you are planting your garden on the same site as last season, remove all dead plant material. Add organic matter and turn the soil. Don’t forget to rotate the crops from last season. This will avoid soil borne diseases and maintain a good soil balance.

For container gardening, you can use almost any type of container. The size of your container will depend on the vegetable that you will be growing and also the spot that you have for your container to be placed. If you are looking to grow tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, you could use a 5 gallon container. Remember your container will need drainage holes and about 1 inch of gravel on the bottom to help with drainage.

Well I received a white poinsettia for Christmas this year and have confiscated my sister’s white poinsettia – which was going down hill quickly. My goal is to grow both of these poinsettias in pots and have them healthy, happy and ready for next Christmas.

Repotted Poinsettia Plants

The first thing I did was replant them into new pots – they came in those really cheap plastic throw-away pots that were way too small for them. I put about an inch of gardening stones at the very bottom of the new pots. This helps with drainage. Then I added enough potting soil to allow the plants to sit high in the bigger pots. I wanted the roots to be no more than an inch or so from the rim of the new pot.

After carefully removing the plants from the old pots, making sure to retain as much of the original soil as possible, I gently sat them in the new soil and filled in around the sides. You want to keep the original soil around the roots – this will prevent the plant from going into shock.

I felt that the original soil was quite moist, so I did not water them into the new soil as I might normally do. I’ll watch them this week and if the soil seems dry, I’ll water. With poinsettias, you want to let the soil dry out before watering. Since I added the rocks to the bottom of the new pots, I’m not too worried about over watering, but I still have to be wary about it.

I’ve posted some photos of the plants in their new pots. Every few weeks I’ll post new photos and keep you updated on how they are doing.

If you save your poinsettias from year to year, please let me know. I’m open for all the pointers I can get!

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Good soil drainage is important to growing bulbs. If your soil has a lot of clay you can improve it by adding compost and peat moss.

Here are some more useful tips about planting your spring bulbs in the fall:

• Purchase high quality bulbs.
• If you are looking to group you flowers you can plant your bulbs in a trench instead of digging individual holes.
• Check the package label for the correct depth.
• If you have no directions, go ahead and dig the holes a depth of about 3 times the height of the bulb.
• Make sure the soil is loose and add organic matter.
• Add bulb fertilizer to the bottom of the hole mixing it in the soil.
• Place the bulb in the bottom of the hole, right side up. (point up, roots down)
• Refill the hole, tapping down the soil lightly.
• Water thoroughly. A little more than usual for about 1 week.
• Place mulch, pine needles or straw on top of the ground where you planted your bulbs. This will give your bulbs protection from the freezing ground.

Don’t forget to remove the mulch in the spring!

Need some gardening advice or just a useful tip or two? Leave us a comment with your gardening question or click here to contact us. Either way, we’ll give you personalized gardening advice.

But if you’re like us, you may want to keep your hands dirty and your thumbs green, so here are some activities for gardeners during the winter (reprinted courtesy of: Emmitsberg.net)

Activities for Gardeners in the Winter Months:

• It is a good time to clean and repair your garden tools. Check the rototiller, lawn mower and sharpen tools.
• Transplant and maintain your houseplants.

Divide some of your plants to start as gifts for upcoming holidays such as Easter and Mother’s Day.

Starting African violets from leaf cuttings is an easy skill to learn. Select a leaf of medium size, slide your finger down the leaf stem and push down at the base. The stem should break away from the parent plant. Leave the stem on the leaf, and dip the stem in rooting powder. Insert the stem at an angle into the soil mix. Place the leaf and pot in a plastic bag, blow in some air and tie it shut. Keep the bag in bright light but not direct sun. If you see mold or moisture in the bag, open it for a few hours to let the excess water evaporate. The stem will root in about a month. When the leaves are an inch long open the bag. In 6 to 8 weeks small leaves will form at the base of the leaf. When they get to be half the size of the mother leaf, carefully separate them from the mother leaf and repot the plants individually. The plants should blossom in six months, if given bright light, warm temperatures and fertilizer.

• Build a bird feeder or purchase one. Watching birds in the winter is a great activity for the whole family. Buy an inexpensive bird identification book, which will make this activity even more fun. Try putting out different birdseed mixes to see whether different birds come to feed.
• Sprout seeds for eating. They do not require light for germination and are very nutritious. You can buy alfalfa seeds at a health food store and they will sprout in a short period of time.
• Now is the time to get a bargain on Amaryllis and Paper Whites. Buy a couple and start them at different times to have a continual bloom during the winter.
• Consider purchasing or even building an “Indoor Grow Lab” that will allow you to start plants from seeds, propagate root cuttings, raise flowering foliage and vegetable plants, force plants to flower and experiment with how plants respond to light. Instructions for building a lab are available at the Extension Office or library, if you are handy with woodworking tools. The cost will probably be $100 – $150.
• Visit a local nursery and drink in the beauty of what is growing and blooming.
• Attend a flower show in your local area – they usually begin to be scheduled in February and March.

Another important winter gardening activity is to start planning your spring planting. How about re-designing the layout of your garden and plotting which plants will go where. And check out local and online nurseries for end of season sales on bulbs, seeds, equipment and more.

As a gardener, what do you do during the winter? Leave a comment on this article or click here to use our handy contact form to let us know! We would love to hear from you.

Preparing your vegetable garden in the fall will help make your gardening chores easier for next seasons spring plantings.

Fall is the time to prepare perennial vegetables for winters cold temperatures. Remove dead stems and foliage to prevent the spread of disease and insects. Cover with mulch to prevent root damage.

If you will be tilling your garden before winter, leave plants in the soil and till the beds under with organic matter, like leaves and grass clippings.  Diseased plants should not be tilled in the garden. Toss them in the trash.

Leaves and plants that are tilled into the garden in the fall season will have time to compost and release valuable nutrients to the soil as well as improving soil structure.

Tilling your garden in the fall will not only add valuable nutrients to the soil but will also expose many insects, larvae and pupae to the winters cold conditions ending their life cycle. Covering your tilled garden with mulch will help prevent the soil from washing away and will keep down the winter weeds.

If you will not be tilling your garden until spring, remove all plants and put them in your compost pile. Any diseased plants should be tossed in the trash.

Wait until spring planting time to apply fertilizer to your garden. Applying fertilizer in the fall will only wash away before it’s time to plant your garden.