Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Podcast #Poetry #Podcast – Mid-Winter, Snow, Ice Summits, Buried in the Snow by Sally Cronin

Today some more poetry and flash fiction from one of my collections.   Sally Cronin – Smorgasbord Blog Magazine · Smorgasbord Poetry And Flash Fiction Midwinter Snow Ice Summits And Buried In The Snow   Mid-Winter Chill winds blow full of vice from arctic lands. Laughing they funnel their energies to find any cracks in your shelter. Time to batten down your hatches and to don your fleecy…

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Podcast #Poetry #Podcast – Mid-Winter, Snow, Ice Summits, Buried in the Snow by Sally Cronin

Today some more poetry and flash fiction from one of my collections.   Sally Cronin – Smorgasbord Blog Magazine · Smorgasbord Poetry And Flash Fiction Midwinter Snow Ice Summits And Buried In The Snow   Mid-Winter Chill winds blow full of vice from arctic lands. Laughing they funnel their energies to find any cracks in your shelter. Time to batten down your hatches and to don your fleecy…

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2021/02/09/five-garden-tasks-before-spring-arrives/

Five Garden Tasks Before Spring Arrives

Just because it’s still winter doesn’t mean you can’t get ready for spring. Here are five garden tasks you can do now before spring arrives

Cleaning garden tools for spring

Mid-winter is tough. You’ve been cooped up inside for weeks and spring is finally on the horizon, so you really have an itch to go out and get an early start on the spring garden.

Unfortunately, Old Man Winter gets his full 12 weeks and, just to prove he’s still in charge, makes February and early March the coldest and most unsettled portions of the season. More often than not, that “early start” you had to have becomes your first setback of the year.

But just because getting out and planting isn’t an option, that doesn’t mean you have to sit around and stare out the window waiting for signs of spring. There’s actually a whole bunch of things you can do now so when that first day of the new season arrives you’re ready to get out and get to work in the garden. Here are five you can do now to get your garden off to a running start in spring.

1) Refresh your potting soil

It’s easy to save money be renewing old potting soil

Have some pots with the remnants of last fall’s annuals? How about planters with perennials that kicked the bucket for whatever reason? Save yourself some money, recycle it and it’ll be as good as new again.

Despite what you’ve heard from “Big Soil” (the potting soil producers), unless, you’re running a highly specific plant-breeding operation, potting soil is easy to renew and perfectly safe for most all plants.

To get started, pull the dead plant matter and screen the old potting soil for old roots, weeds, grubs and other undesirable stuff. If the soil is dry, mix in a little water to moisten and then blend in 25% fresh compost or some slow release fertilizer. Let it sit for a couple days to “marinate” and it’s good to go for spring.

If you think the old soil has weed seeds or you had problems with insects or soil-borne fungus last season, sterilize it first by putting it in a black plastic bag (lawn & leaf bags are perfect) and leaving it in the sun for a couple weeks. Even in really cold weather the combination of heat and cold swings will sterilize the soil perfectly.

YouTube has lots of videos on different ways to renew your potting soil.

2) Clean up your growing space(s)

Clean up your growing space before spring gets here

Whether it’s a greenhouse, a potting room, patio, or just a spot in the window, stuff tends to pile up winter. Now’s a good time to inspect, clean and inventory your pots both for seed starting and transplants moving back outdoors.

While you’re at it, if you’ve got plants inside for winter or an abundance of houseplants, see who needs trimming, dividing and/or re-potting before the longer, warmer days kick off a new growing season.

You may also find you’ve got an excess of plants that you can trade with your friends and neighbors. And if you like to trade plants, you might also check out your favorite social media network for plant trading forums. I find it’s a good way to use excess plant stock to get some new things for next to nothing. My favorite is the Take a Plant Leave a Plant subreddit on Reddit.

3) Clean, sharpen and oil your tools

Clean, sharpen, repair and oil your garden tools

Hand tools like pruning shears, garden scissors, hori hori and grafting knives, hand trowels, tillers, etc. should be cleaned, sharpened and oiled. Wash off the dirt and grime with dish soap and water. For rust, use steel wool to scour it off. For tough, built up sticky stuff like sap and plant oils, soak them for an hour in rubbing alcohol to soften the build-up, then use a rag to wipe it off.

Metal parts should be rubbed with a machine oil like 3-in-1 to inhibit rust and moving parts like hinges, springs and joints, should be oiled or sprayed lubricant as well.

Long handle tools – shovels, hoes, forks, etc. – also need to be cleaned, sharpened and oiled.

Additionally, if it’s a wood handled tool, check the condition of the wood. Over time the waterproof coating on the handle comes off (especially if you’re like me and leave your tools out in the rain) and the exposed wood will shrink and decay.

If the handle is still firm but drying and cracking, coat it with a good wood oil like linseed (my preference) or Danish wood oil to weatherproof it. If the wood is soft and bendy or splitting, it’s time to replace the handle. You can pick up a new handle at your local garden supply for about 1/3rd the cost of a new garden tool, so if the head of the tool is still in good shape, replacing the handle is well worth a few bucks and a little time. If you’ve never replaced the handle on a garden tool, here’s a good video tutorial.

4) Prune, trim and transplant before things really get growing

Trim, prune and transplant over grown shrubs and hedges

Pruning, trimming and digging aren’t much fun when the weather is cold and yucky, but doing it now is better for the plant because growth is slow and there’s a lower risk shock, pests, fungus and the like getting into the newly trimmed wood.

Trimming is not only easier when the plant has fewer (or no) leaves, but you can also trim a little more heavily than you would during the growing season which provides the dual benefits of no ugly bald spots or holes in the foliage in spring, as well as allowing you to go longer without trimming again.

Transplanting is a little more work in winter than spring, but it gives you an opportunity to move plants that are outgrowing the space, or didn’t quite work where you originally planted them. The plant will be dormant or semi-dormant so even if you hack up the root ball a bit, you’ll have a lower risk of root shock than you would if the plant is actively growing.

5) Sow longer season seeds now

Sow seeds for long maturity flowers and vegetables early

Of course, now is the time to get early spring seeds started so you can move them outside as soon as the weather will let you, but you can also get a head start on those longer season veggies and flowers that need warm soil and 80 to 90 days to mature.

You can start long season tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, herbs like oregano and thyme, and flowers like geraniums (pelargoniums), begonias, snapdragons (antirrhinum) now and transplant them in mid-spring and you’ll start seeing fruits and flowers 30-45 days earlier than you would if you waited for warmer weather.

These plants generally require warmer soil temperatures and more light than early season seedlings, so you might want to put them on a seedling heat mat or in a brightly lit, warm room for best results.

— § —

Winter weighing your spirit down? Here's some reasons for hope.

a bouquet of pussy willows Pat yourself on the back. You made it half way through the winter of 2021. That alone is reason to do a little happy dance on the middle of your kitchen floor. But there is still lots of winter left so I thought I would check in with you and give you a couple of reasons for hope to see you through until spring, or at least the month of February. February is the…

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2021/01/29/keyhole-garden-mid-winter-maintenance/

Keyhole Garden Mid-Winter Maintenance

The key to keeping a keyhole garden productive even in winter is keeping the compost bin in the middle happy. Today we did a mid-winter checkup

The keyhole garden in late January, 2021

It’s hard to say enough good things about a keyhole garden. This raised bed isn’t just efficient and easy to maintain, but it’s also productive year round with a minimum of work.

Our winters here in San Diego county aren’t the cold and snowy ones they are in many other parts of the country, but the ocean to our west, mountains to our east, and all the hilly terrain in between makes for a lot of different micro-climates in the region.

Here at the Acre we’re about halfway between the Pacific Ocean and Palomar Mountain on the south side of the San Luis Rey river valley. Our micro-climate is equally influenced by ocean and mountains, a little warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter than the coast, but far more moderate than the hot and cold of the foothills just a few miles east. (Not surprisingly, this area is home to quite a few nurseries, avocado and citrus groves, and vegetable and flower fields.)

Winter lettuce and spinach in the keyhole garden

While the weather is more moderate than neighboring micro-climates, we still get a fair number of below-freezing nights, usually following on the heels of a Pacific storm or high pressure coming out of the desert. In late January and on into early March, it’s a cycle of wet days and cold nights occasionally broken up by a hot daytime Santa Ana wind followed by an even colder night (the dry air can bring overnight lows down into the mid 20’s F).

The wet weather and temperatures that can swing 60 degrees in a 24 hour period make it a challenge to grow any kind of vegetable, winter or summer, in the main garden, so we let that one rest and allow the “cleaning crew” (aka our chickens and ducks) to forage in it until mid-March.

The keyhole garden, however, is a different story. There, the high raised bed not only drains water more quickly, but the compost bin in the center leeches nutrition into the soil while keeping it several degrees warmer than the surrounding area. As long as the compost bin is happy and doing its organic magic, we can keep the garden planted and producing all year long. In fact, our keyhole garden is currently on day number 668 of continuous production.

The compost bin in the keyhole garden

Like all compost, the keyhole garden’s compost bin requires a good mix of dry-to-wet organic material as well as moisture and air circulation. For us that’s a mix of kitchen scraps (fruit and vegetable only), plant matter from other parts of the yard (cuttings, fallen oranges from the orchard, and a generous helping of leaves from the podocarpus tree at the front entry (which drops an incredible amount all year long).

Because we have long, dry spells between rain the winter, we keep the bin moist by not turning it too often – maybe once every few weeks or so. But after it’s been wet and cold for an extended period, like it has been for the past week or so, we’re a little more aggressive on compost maintenance, adding more dry material than usual, and turning it a couple times a week to keep it active.

Yesterday following a heavy rain, hail and two nights of freezing temperatures, I checked the keyhole garden’s status and was pleased to find that not only had the lettuce, spinach and broccoli survived, but the summer tomato and frying pepper plants over-wintering in it were also doing just fine.

I credit this to the compost bin, which as you can see from the video nearby, is doing splendidly. It’s wormy, rich and warm, exactly as we want it this time of year, which is why I love this garden so much.

If you’ve ever considered a keyhole garden, or just want to learn more about what makes it special, I recommend you check out my post from a while back. There you’ll see why it’s designed the way it is, and how I built my own. Hopefully, you’ll find it inspiring. I know if you build one of your own, you’ll be amazed at what it can do!

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