Grow your own Food | January 2023

I’ve always been fascinated by Geoff Lawton’s quote, “All the world’s problems can be solved in a garden” because well, it’s so true.

Being in the sunshine, staying active and experiencing all the fascinating things in a garden is a great diversion to all the craziness in the world. For me, it served as the perfect distraction to focus on something positive, rather than worrying about all the stressful things I couldn’t control.

I’m glad I stuck with it because today not only do I feel good, but our garden is an entertaining, peaceful, and magical place that the boys and I enjoy so much. Gardening truly is a gift that keeps on giving.

Gardening is a gift

I’ve always been grateful for the many benefits gardening has brought to my life but this year was special. Our garden served as a source of gifts for so many others.

My youngest has taken an interest in the garden and he loves picking flowers and herbs in the morning (especially when we are running late) so he can give them to his teachers at school.

Now that most of our chickens are laying, we are scrambling (no pun intended) to figure out what to do with 10-12 eggs a day, so, they too served as gifts for the many awesome teachers, neighbors, friends, and family in our lives. 

For some of the gifts, we included cut flowers, ginger, turmeric, rosemary, basil, beets, peppers, beans, and tomatoes. People truly appreciated it and I was asked a lot of gardening questions. 

It was a good motivator as I took December off from teaching to spend time working on an interactive online Grow Your Own Food course. I have been designing it for years and it’s finally time to get it all laid out.

Another exciting moment this month – Baker’s Creek Magazine came in the mail!! This means it’s time to start planning for spring!!

Jax and I picked out a few varieties (maybe more) of seeds that we want to plant this year. I feel like we’re at that halfway point where we can plant another round of cool-weather vegetable seeds in the yard and start warm-weather seeds in pots.

I’ll leave the pots of warm-weather seeds in the shop to germinate. It’s going back up into the 80s here, so I’m not going to use heat mats for now. They would probably encourage them to sprout faster but I’m in no hurry. 

You can research your “last average frost date”. Mine is mid-February, meaning historically, that is the safest time for my area to start planting warm-weather crops outside, but you still need to watch the weather and use your best judgment. 

I’ve been observing the yard to get an idea of where to plant everything. My garden is more productive and abundant each year, but this year – we’re going gangbusters. I have 2 new rows (over 250 sq feet) to plant in and 2023 is going to be our best gardening year yet!!

I hope your gardens and lives are full of abundance this year as well. Thanks for reading. Until next month, I wish you lots of success and growth for 2023. 

Have an awesome January!!