Prepping Your Garden Space Early

[bunyip]

Have you tried growing your herbs inside during winter?  I grow mine in the kitchen, they seem to like the sun coming in the window there.

Jmath, I get my seeds from Heirloom Seeds online and I got Stowell's Evergreen corn, but it has a 100 day growing season.  Maybe try Ashworth at 75-80 days. 

I also have spinach, zucchini, squash and watermelon...well you got to have dessert!!  I would be grateful for any ideas on how to keep the dogs from picking my peppers off the plants.  Of course they don't eat them because they take one bite and give up, but it still doesn't stop them picking them in the first place.  They also eat all my grapes they can reach and the squirrel takes the higher ones.  If the dogs would just catch that annoying squirrel I would have some grapes left each year.

[Jmath]

I try to keep my temps in Farenheight, I speak both and convert easily.  Product of the generation that learned both.  They sell the gourd seeds here in zone 3.  You never know, the climate may shift by the time we need to use them.

[Libellula]

Here i can make you all feel a little jealous......on 21 December i planted out garlic cloves.  Nothing to do with temperature or a so far very mild winter, more tradition.  Planted on the winter solstice, ready for the summer solstice.  We are at altitude and although mild this year, it is normally very cold, minus 18 C (-0.4F).
Today, i hope to plant out the first batch of broad beans, these are also very hardy, even if they start growing and there is snow or frost they seem to survive. Planted October to December they can by ready to pick early as March. i always risk some very early. then plant some every month until May. The problem i have had in previous years has been the ground being too hard from frost to let me plant,  last autumn i covered a patch with straw so it should be ok.
If we can, i think we should put temps in F and C, here is a coversion chart, there may be people lurking out there who use this system

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/conv...nvert.html

[listmaker]

I'm dreaming of my garden already.  It was amazing last year and I harvested 80 ripe tomatoes on Dec 14th!  In Texas, where the last ones usually come out of the garden in late October.  We had warm, sunny days all the way up to 12/14 and since then, its been off and on freezing temps at night. We're getting some much needed rain right now and hopefully that will help the trees.  I will start transplants inside under the grow lights at the end of this month.  I hope to plant the garden early like I did last year. I planted everything on the last weekend of March which was a real gamble.  It paid off and we had a very long, productive year.  I guess I'll use some of my stored seed this year and just replace what I use with fresh seed for storage. I've gotten lazy about rotating my stock, including food and seed........need to get organized.

[Libellula]

I was ecstatic when my 'Gardening by the Moon 2013' diary dropped through the letter box two days before Christmas.  It has loads of growing information, charts for the moon, eclipses etc., a double page grid to draw a garden plan on, and a day by day chart to enter local details onto like, max min temperatures, wind, pressure etc.  I have also included columns for CMEs and chemtrails so that I can keep track of the sort of weather that follows them.

I am sure something similar will be available in the US and the UK, I find keep a diary like this so useful to see when I started planting and results etc in previous years, mistakes made, veg that did well, how much I harvested and put up etc.  If you cannot find such a book, then you could keep records on a simple spreadsheet programme or just draw up columns on a sheet of paper.

[Jmath]

I like the Poor Will's almanac in the Countryside magazine, but it relates more to the southern areas than here.  He has the weather front dates about the best I've seen.  I need to find something that relates to our northern climate better.

[Alaska_Freedom]

I have read in the past about planting by the moon but never gave it much credit but since it is also mentioned several times in the Bible, was wondering how it works and why?  Anyone care to get into that to explain it to us unenlightened ones?

[listmaker]

Good idea, Whiteangel.   I've always been interested in planting by the moon.  I know that certain crops should be planted at different phases of the moon, but I'd like to know what and when.  Anyone have a good reference for this?

[Jmath]

I've heard that root crops should be during the dark of the moon and above ground crops by the light of the moon.  Anyone else heard if that is right or not?
I've got such a short season that when I can I just get it all in though.

[bunyip]

I believe it's got something to do with the moon affecting the rainfall and winds just as it does the tides.  If you've ever watched those shows about the moon and how important it is to our planet, this isn't surprising that it would affect the growing of plants too.  I will see if I can find more info on the effects of moon to plants.