Take stock in late winter for your edible garden

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Late winter is the time to take stock of the seeds you have stored in the refrigerator, how much you have been eating over the winter to plan for your new edible preservation garden, and what did well in your winter edible garden to plan for the spring edible garden.

I store my extra seeds in the refrigerator in ziplock bags.  Typically when you buy a pack of seeds, it is enough for one family's needs for years.  I store the extras and use them for years.  You can test a few each year to make sure they are still germinating well by putting them on a damp paper towel to see if they sprout.  

Another option is to do seed exchanges with friends, either from seeds they have saved from their open pollinated edibles or getting together to see what everyone is thinking of growing and splitting up between you what each is going to buy and then sharing.  Even if you do pay for a full packet of seeds, the bounty you get from the ones you plant more than makes up for the cost of the packet.

Many towns have community seed banks where people leave their extra seeds for others to use.  You can so an internet search or get in touch with your local Master Gardeners to see what is available in your area.  Many Master Gardener programs provide local training on how to grow edibles and some will even provide seeds or plants as part of the training to help you get your first garden going.

The local dollar stores are even carrying seeds for edible gardening for $1 per packet.  The selection is limited, but cover the basic vegetable types that are the most popular to grow.  

If you have been tracking what you eat over the winter to see what and how much you want to grow starting this spring, now is the time to collate all the data and put together the plan.  Use this winter to figure out what to grow in the spring!  You can use the chart here to see how many of each variety you would need to have enough for an entire year's worth to eat.   Chart for how many to plant   If you are just getting started, it is best to start small and grow just a couple of plants of 5 or so varieties.  That way you can learn with a smaller number of plants and not be overwhelmed.  The first year you can just eat fresh and move up to growing more that you can put away to eat year round.

For those that have been gardening for a while, now is the time to do an inventory to see what you have left in the pantry and adjust your planting to keep you stocked all through the summer.  Or you may find that you can reduce what you planted last year because you still have plenty to eat into summer.  Be sure to put in your garden journal how much you actually used over the winter and the adjustments to make for this year's planting.

Now that you know what you want to grow, take stock of the seeds you already have to see if you need to purchase any new seeds.  I keep a spreadsheet of my seeds.  As I got more into gardening, I had a hard time of knowing if I already had a cool sounding variety.  To keep for buying more, I sat down and created a spreadsheet with all the varieties I had, with growing instructions, when to start, and days to harvest along with a comments column for what was best about that variety.  Now you have the list of seeds to acquire.

In our Zone 7 garden, daffodils, surprise lilies and daylilies are all sprouting.  Daffodils already have buds on them and apple tree's buds are swelling.  It won't be long before spring is here!

Take stock of what is coming up in the edible garden and what did well in your portable greenhouses as well as what did not.  Write in your journal what you DO want to plant again in lates summer to harvest over the winter and what you do NOT want to plant as it did not do well in your conditions.  Keeping a journal has been super helpful for my gardening to make sure I don't re-try varieties that didn't do well or forget which ones did as well as how many I really need to plant.  Keep a garden diary

   If you are just getting started, try a small edible garden like Grow a Sicilian/Italian kitchen garden in as little as 6' x 6'  Or you can grow an herb garden to start.  Mediterranean herbs thrive on neglect and most come back year after year.    Start a kitchen herb garden!