late , a non - gardening admirer , bed of my horticulture habituation and the ludicrous size of my wife ’s and my veg gardens , remarked , “ Well , it ’s January , and there ’s nothing to do in the garden . It must be a boring prison term of the yr for you gardeners . ”WHAT ? January ’s a wearisome month with nothing for a gardener to do??Well , lease me secernate you , it ’s been a busy calendar month for this fussy nurseryman .
The seed catalogs began showing up in the mailbox in the eye of November and continued coming through the month of December , right on in the thick of the busy holiday season . You infer it — they were thrown in the desk drawer with more than a few elderly catalogue . Do n’t you hate it when you attempt to open up a desk drawer , but it ’s so full that something catch at the top and you ca n’t spread it ? And we already have two desk drawers fill to capability with various vintage seeds and nursery catalogs . Clearly it ’s preceding meter to bemuse out the old catalogs . My bride gently reminded me to search for copies of order forms or notes before throw out the sometime . Of naturally , I reassure her that I had file away last year ’s order forms in the “ 2014 Seed Order Folder ” to be used as a acknowledgment in connexion with future seed ordination . I was also lightly prompt that I had a lot of seeds in the basement left over from previous gardening time of year , and that I should do a seed armory before “ going hog wild ” ordering seeds that we do n’t involve .
As I point to the basement to perform the seed inventory , I was reminded that the ashes needed to be absent from the wood stove and take out . Ouch … .Now hardwood ashes may be used in lieu of lime to make the grease less acidulous – lower the sourness ( enhance the pH ) of the soil , which can be helpful with our local land , which run to be more acid than is desirable for vegetable . In accession to raising the pH level in soil , Sir Henry Wood ash also hold atomic number 19 , magnesium and other trace element essential to plant growth.http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/wood-ash-can-be-useful-yard-if-used-caution . Dumping the ash tree in the vegetable garden might be just the affair . But I had leave last fall to examine the soil in our veg garden . I am hesitant to add wood ash to the garden without knowing the pH floor because I could end up raising the pH level too much . The vegetable garden will be most productive in the pH range of 6.0–7.0 , according to “ Fertilizing the Vegetable Garden , ” Pub . No . 426 - 323,http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426 - 323/426 - 323.html
I had really stopped by the local Virginia Cooperative Extension government agency and picked - up a soil testing software system ; unfortunately , I had mislay the teaching sheet , but not to worry ; I paid a warm visit to the Virginia Tech WWW site to publish off the Soil Sample Information sheet , Pub . No 452 - 125 , ( http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/452/452-125/452-125_pdf.pdf ) . As for the ashes from my stove , they will be sprinkled around the apple tree . A soil psychometric test last spring had revealed a pH of 5.6 , low than the optimum range for orchard apple tree tree , which is 6.00 - 6.50 . Pub . No . 426 - 842 , “ Tree Fruit in the Home Garden,”http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426 - 841/426 - 841.html ) .
Now I needed to wait for a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. when the vegetable garden was not stock-still , so I could then collect the dirt sample and post it to the soil research lab at Virginia Tech . Why waste money on fertilizer and calcium hydroxide when it ’s not necessitate ?
After cleaning out the wood stove and depositing the ash tree around the apple trees , I point to the basement to perform the germ inventory . I was midway down the stairs when I heard a conversant voice from upstairs reminding me to “ look at the dates on the seed packet because some of those seeds are old and necessitate to be tossed . ” What ? Throw off seeds just because they are old ! ! ! !
Telling a nurseryman to toss seeds is akin to asking a hunter to take his best hunting dog out behind the barn and shoot him . Once again my seed inventory journeying was interrupted . Well , there must be a way to find out if a semen is unfeignedly too quondam to be viable . A small online research located numerous website , include various seed company , that offer information on home semen sprouting examination . One such land site , Seedsavers.org , offered basic and unsubdivided teaching for “ Home Germination Testing,”http://www.seedsavers.org / site / pdf / HomeGermTests_LAFrevised.pdf . This publication not only offer information on how to test your questionable ejaculate , but also includes a leaning of common house items that can be used for germination examination . Now I had a program : I would severalize the seed inventory by two age groups : those less than 3 years old and those 3 years old and quondam . I will give a few seeds ( ten from each package ) to find out their sprouting charge per unit . So I point back to the basement to perform the seed inventorying and to find out what seeds needed to be essay for germination before tossing them out .
As I compact through the piles of source packet boat that had accumulated over the years , I found many that were labeled 2005 and in the first place . Why had n’t they been used ? I headed back upstairs to the honest-to-goodness ejaculate catalog ( good affair I had n’t thrown them out yet ) to research the descriptions on these honest-to-goodness seeds . But then the bulb went on in my head . In my many yr of gardening , I had never , ever run across a negative seed verbal description in any seed catalogue . Quite the contrary — the description are always beam — and that ’s undoubtedly why I now have 417 various seed packets in inventory . Really , would I have spent money on a tomato variety account as “ dependent to early blight , often display the attribute of cracking , poor yield , small with acid flavor ” ? Heck , no !
So I snaffle my garden daybook and headed back to the cellar to summarize the seminal fluid inventorying . I have been maintaining this daybook for many eld , and was hoping I had been open-eyed in my daybook entry , noting not only the last frost dates , first hoarfrost engagement , and harvest time dates ; but also enough entropy to settle if the form was a “ custodian ” — suitable of plant again next season . My cum stocktaking project was again interrupt with a plea from above : “ I need your supporter ! The toilet light quit work . I changed the lite bulb and reset the breaker , and still nothing . ” Then I remembered that the swooning switch had begun to feel loose lately . Luckily I had a spare part in the shed ; this would n’t take long .
As I opened the door to the shed , I came face - to - face with a tragedy . There were tools , hosepipe , dirty ejaculate tray , dirty seed tray inserts and pail in piles everywhere . No curiosity my wife complains about the sentence it takes for me to regain anything . In increase to the chain reactor of clutter , I discover that the vegetable sprayer — which had been used for Bt ( Bacillus Thuringiensis ) to control potato beetle larvae and cabbage worms — was in pauperism of cleaning and a hosiery replacement . Then it occur to me that the cultivator needs an oil variety , fresh tine and a belt replacement to be quick for the 2015 gardening season . But all that would take to wait , as my delegacy was to place a spare electric transposition in a storage locker at the back of the shed . Fortunately , I was able to secure it without tripping , turning an ankle or other mischance . Wow , what a labor . It ’s going to take several days to get the shed organized for this forthcoming gardening season and several more day to do the need maintenance on the tiller and the lawn mowers , which postulate oil , filter change and blades sharpen , not to mention the chain needing exchange on the Ernst Boris Chain adage .
After dispatch my critical chore of replace the galvanizing permutation in the bathroom , I headed back to the cellar to get back to the seed inventory . I start by sorting the various seeds into stacks — tomatoes , black pepper , corn , dome , pea plant , broccoli , cauliflower , brussel sprouts , carrots , and radishes , etc . Then examined each sight and divided the piles by the age of the seeds , two years old or less in one sight , and three years or older in another stack . The source packets ending up in the three - twelvemonth and old push-down store would be evaluated to define if they were keepers , and if I wanted to do the wet towel germination exam on a specific bundle of seeds . Then I was reminded how well - prepare my Saint Brigid is — I was find empty seed packets marked “ empty ” and “ reorder ” in a conversant hand . What a cunning idea . Those live into a freestanding pot to be reordered .
While I was busily sieve seeds , I feel a sudden urge to plant something . What to plant in January ? It ’s too early to start tomatoes , pepper or even broccoli or other cold-blooded weather condition crop , but EUREKA — there before me are “ confect ” onion seeds and “ Bandit ” leek seed . The armory would be pose on time lag . I was off to the shed to collect a couple seminal fluid trays and seed starter soil mixture .
Once I had planted the Allium cepa and leek seminal fluid and cover the trays with formative wrap to maintain moisture , I placed the cum flat in a warm blot inside the planetary house , and fall to my germ inventory chore , take which seeds to keep , which seed to test , which ones to toss and which to re - Holy Order . And it all needed to be done before the seed ordering mental process could begin . I take to get moving . I know from experience that source can sell out , especially if you wait to place your order in mid- to late February .
Good thing the horticulture season is over . How did I get so behind ? I am indeed thankful that the month of January is a boring month with nothing to do . Hopefully all my January undertaking will be completed by April when the “ real horticulture season ” start out — at which clock time I can start on my February project !
To sum it all up , there ’s plenty to do in January , and they ’re listed in short below :
