A Life of Organized Chaos: Dreaming of warmer days

So, as with a lot of people he new year brings with it thoughts of spring and gardens :) After one of my favorite past times, searching Pinterest I have discovered something called snow sowing. Since I don't yet have a greenhouse I have been looking at ways to start some of my plants early to hopefully keep costs down. Buying plants in May or June can get expensive. This year I am also going to be fencing in my garden because if you looked over my garden posts from last year I had a problem with something eating my broccoli, and when you buy 24 broccoli plants that can be a real pain in the but and loss of money.

So back to this snow sowing. What that basically is is you take gallon size clear plastic containers which can be milk jugs or in my case since I have a lot of these, old vinegar jugs, (just make sure to thouroughly wash them before use.)

   You cut the container about half way up, but do not cut the whole way through the container, leave a piece still attached so it acts like a hinge. Drill about 15 holes in the bottom of the jug and a few around the bottom this allows for ventilation and drainage. Next fill with potting soil, wet the soil, plant your seeds then you are basically done. Tape the container back together then using a permanent marker write what is inside the container and the day planted so you can keep track of when to transplant. Oh, and don't forget to take the caps off and leave them off. This is how your plants gets water, but make sure to check in early spring to see if they need a little water from you. Unlike when you start seeds indoors, this method does not require you to harden your plants off before transplanting to your garden when the time comes.

   I am really excited to try out this method of gardening and hoping it will turn out well for me and my garden. This year I have decided to change up this a little bit and only grown about a dozen or so veggies so that I can hone in on how to grow these few crops well. So this year I have decided to try my hand again at broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, lettuce, cucumbers, peas, carrots, and green beans. I ordered these seeds yesterday online. I will not be using my mini greenhouses for all of these, some of them are direct sowes. I will also be planting potatoes again. Last year my corn did not do well so I am going to be buying that in bulk again like I did last year. It worked out very well and I was able to support local farmers. I will also be buying tomatoes this year since I did not have good luck with those last year. By the time I had enough ready to can, half of them were already rotten. I have only planted carrots before once, and I have no experience with growing peas but I am thinking ahead and plan on making them into baby food for the little one on the way.

   Here are some trow back Thursday picture for you of my garden from last year.