I have no organizational skills at all. I dont know how many times I have planted something and not placed a tag or marker, only to come back and plant something else on top of what I had planted a week earlier and forgotten about it. Another problem I have is plants being too slow. I will have something planted, then want them to mature because I am ready to use that spot again.

I did get a spot tilled for my onions today, and I think my helped got my cold frame ready. Containers and cold frames are two things I know nothing about.

Cool stuff I am growing

cabbage

red cabbage

broccoli

cauliflower

purple sprouting broccoli

broccoli raab

celery

pink celery

kohlrabi

snow peas

Celery! Have you grown it before, Kim? Easy to grow?

Okay. I decided I will go with what I have on hand, as opposed to buying any new varieties of anything. Except maybe I'll buy some cabbage seeds.

Beets: Crosby's Egyptian

Cabbage: Pak Choi, Chinese cabbage (Tokyo Bekana)

Collards: Flash F1, Morris Heading, Georgia Southern

Kale: Lacinato, Vades Dwarf Blue Curled, Red Russian

Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Butterhead (Okayama Salad), Hyper Red Rumple Waved, Romaine (Rouge D'hiver OG), Mesclun, Iceberg,

Mustard: Giant Red

Spinach: Akarenso (Japanese hybrid), Bloomsdaale, Okame

Swiss chard: Bright Lights, Rainbow, Ruby

Onions: Candy (intermediate) and Japanese Buching (Heshiko)

Radishes: Crimson Giant and Daikon Miyashige White

Larry. . . . that's another Dawn thing. I remember she said to label the plants three times, so that's what I did last summer and will from now on! lol I poke a hole in my mini-blind labels now and tie them to the plant in two different places as they grow bigger. Also there's the label in the ground.

That's my goal this year, keep everything labeled. So the stuff I have inside, I used mailing labels to mark everything with name & date planted. Then I wrote a number on the cup & made notes in a notebook. So if the labels come off I still have the number to look it up.

Larry--GDW and I feel somewhat like what you said, about the feeling better!

Re tomatillos. They hate me. I couldn't even get decent ones from two plants! So this year if I try them, I'll get different seeds and grow 3-4 here! They didn't do anything here, NOR at Lincoln. I thought it was because in both places only one survived. Okay. I will try them one more year, and that's it. :)

I was excited to have OUR friend come help, too. But come to find out, he can't make it until next week. Well that's okay. Any time he can come will be great with us.

Haha, Jen--silly me. What was I thinking!

Wintersowing some stuff today.

A couple of years ago I bought some steak markers at a restaurant supply store. (You know, well, medium and rare?) They're little and I put them in the winter sow solos as well as writing on the cups. I write on the paper cups I start seeds in and then I try to write on solo cups when I pot up AND make a label for the garden when I pot up. I have mini blinds, but I also like plastic spoons. None of this guarantees I won't forget to mark something. It also doesn't guarantee Ron won't use his stupid claw weeder on a fresh seedbed. Meh.

Cool season plants:

I have many varieties of collard, kale and Swiss Chard. Oh, and Asian greens, too.

I will use up all spinach seeds this year and only buy bloomsdale varieties in the future. I plan to throw all the old lettuce seeds in the tomato beds, as well as making sure I use some fresh marked seed.

Ron says the fall planted broccoli has little heads. I wonder if it is buttoning. There are Brussels sprouts plants out there and maybe some kale.

There are baby cilantro seedlings where it reseeds.

I won't grow onions. Potatoes only if Ron puts them in bags. Garlic was planted, but will have to be moved so Ron can fix the bed.

I plan beets, turnips and carrots.

I will plant the provider bush beans early.

If it germinates I will plant leaf celery in a pot out front. I had some that was pink stemmed. How long is that good for?

Astro arugula which I really like and makes kind of a pretty flower too. I could put it in a pot out front.

Root parsley. I have a lot of old parsley seed, too. It's only supposed to be good a year. I think I'll throw all the old cilantro seed in a pot out front and see what happens.

Is all this ready? Of course not. And Ron has projects. Been talking about getting helpers. The 13 year old grandson could help with some stuff, but he's....petite? Add in his brother (who would probably prefer gardening) and there would just be trouble. I need to find a big teenager who works cheap!

Nancy

I have not successfully grown celery. I am hopeful in the land of moisture that I have a shot.

Quitaque 2020 has 10.83” of rain.

we had over 40”.

it’s going to take awhile to get used to this

I dont see how you folks have the room all the plants you plant, or the time to care for them. I have room for about 4 rows of onions ready. A lot of things I plant on 6" centers in the row. I have a tool I made, something like a rake, that just has (4) teeth that I mark my rows with, it lets me plant on 6", 12" 18" or 24" spacing. The rows look rather straight and neat. On the small seed I just drop them in the groove as water them in, larger seeds, like peas and beans, I flip the tool over and drag it to cover the seeds.

It is much too wet for me to plant anything. I may get out today try to plant something in the cold frame. I am just shooting in the dark when it comes to my cold frame, but I have plenty of seeds to play with, surely something will come up.

I expect I will have problems with slugs, I remember Dawn saying that she used Slug-o-plus, do any of you use it, and where do you get it?

Its up to 41* at 9:20, and no Dr. appointment, maybe I can get something done today.

I peeled some turnips for lunch, and got the bright idea if radishes could be eaten like turnips. I went out to the south garden to pull a daikon radish. I brought it in to take a picture of it before I butchered it. While posting a picture, Madge said "he is eating that", looking down I saw our yorkie eating the greens off that radish. The dog has almost no teeth, but he was doing as much damage as he could to the top of the radish. He thinks Daddy grows the best food. He eats turnips also, if I cut them up small enough for him to chew.

It is wonderful to go out to the garden in January to pick fresh vegetables for the table. I am trying to learn how to grow year-around food.

Aw, how cute! Our girl would eat stuff from our garden if I didn't stop her. I brought in a carrot last year, last carrot of the season. Put it on the counter, went to do something & the brat stole it & was munching away. And it looks like our newest pup is taking after her. He already will eat veggies when I toss them.

I've bought sluggo plus from Amazon. Supposedly it helps kill earwigs, but I still have a hideous invasion.

As for spacing, I cram more than I should into my tiny garden & hope for the best. I also start about 2-3x more than I can plant, expecting a good number to not make it. Then I have to figure out what to do when they all survive.

Ok, here's my admittedly over-long list. Most are old seeds so I'm expecting poor germination. If I have good germination, well, I guess I'll have to get rid of extras.

Vegetables:

Peas: little marvel, cascadia, early frost, wando, sugar ann dwarf, sugar sprint

These will be scattered anywhere I have an open spot

Radish: Champion, purple plum, paskhalnayasa, cherry, early scarlet, comet

Carrot: st valrey, danvers, purple kiss, atomic red, shin kuroda, dragon, tasty peel

Lettuce: red romain, black seeded simpson, parris island, devil's ear, frizzy headed drunken woman

Spinach: bloomsdale, giant noble

Cilantro

Onion

I mix the radish, carrot, & lettuce seed together & plant. It seems to work for me, so might as well keep doing it. And planting it under other crops seems to extend their life, plus they work as a sort of living mulch.

Larry, I get Sluggo at my local garden shop. I’d be surprised if your farm & feed store didn’t have it.

Jen, what happened to this "small" garden! lol

Lol you know me... besides, most seedlings I seem to murder, so I always plant an extra dozen. And I overcrowd so I'm probably shoving way more thannI should.

Yeah, I hear you! And me, who was only going to grow like 3-4 varieties of tomatoes. Here's what I'm going to do, though. I will be ruthless about murdering ones that aren't doing well. I feel really good about only growing ONE hot pepper, though. And thankful I have the school garden, too. BUT John and I agreed we don't want as many tomatoes there this year, either.

I'm excited to get one of their beds planted with asparagus, though, and a couple full of greens. I can replace the greens with melons and cucumbers when it gets hot. Right?

I wont plant near as many varieties as y'all do, but I plan on have a fair amount of plants.

I have bare ground for Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions. I hope to get more ground ready, but as always I will have to fight wet soil.

I am still feeding extra cold season plants to the cattle. Ole Mooch will come up to the fence for a hand-out each time she sees me outside.

I have supplies to build more cattle trellises. I will try to grow Seminole and butternut on the trellises. I want to grow more Old Timey Cornfield pumpkins. I get more food per sq. ft with the pumpkins, but they are too large. If we had a large family, or, someone living close, to share with the larger pumpkins would be fine, we still don't have the extra room in our freezer to store the leftovers from processing a large pumpkin.

I ate about 40% of the radish I posted above, then today Madge put the remaining 60% in a salad that we had for lunch. It was wonderful. I think the colder weather makes them taste much better. I rode around checking my crop yesterday evening, seeing if I had enough to last till spring, I have plenty. The greens are looking a little burned, but the roots are still great. I don't know how much cold they can stand, 17* has been our coldest so far.

Amy, I hope you don't mind, but I will look you as my new "Dawn", you seem to be here ever day, and have a head full of knowledge, and the Lord knows that I need someone to keep me straight.

Oh how I miss all of Dawn's wisdom and knowledge.

I haven't planned anything yet this year because we might be moving. Last night I told my husband I was sad because I yearn to get seeds started. He told me to go ahead because we might be here through the summer and if not, then it'll be a blessing to the next family. So that is what I am going to do. I have a few herbs that I planted in October that are still alive just need to perk them up a bit. I left my carrots in one of my beds because they weren't big enough to harvest yet. I checked them Friday and they are still alive and doing good. I'll probably harvest this week. It's the first time my carrots have done a dang thing so I am excited and will plant more this year. I always try lettuce but it never does well. I'm still trying this year. One day I will master it, lol. I am going to try to get spinach, lettuce, carrots, onions, and swiss chard started this week. The local co-op has been having bunches of onion starts so I'll go grab some if they have any left. They also have packets of seeds so I'll check out what else they have. If we do move, I was joking with my sister asking her if she would come help me dig up my dirt. LOL. Joking, but in reality I really want to take it with me because I've babied it and added to it each year and well, it's good dirt now lol. *sigh*

Has anyone read about the split of the polar vortex this year that might cause extremely cold temperatures? I came across the article in my newsfeed and thought it was really interesting. Actually reminds me of something Dawn would post on because she was all about the weather. I often check the Mesonet and only because Dawn always referred to it so it's my go to now.

Larry, I'm a shallow imitation of Dawn, but I'm a good researcher with time on my hands. We'll muddle through.

Melissa--I was just reading up on the polar vortex. Yes, very interesting. There are lots of stories on it right now. Thanks for the heads up. https://www.kare11.com/article/weather/accuweather/when-will-the-us-feel-the-impact-of-the-polar-vortex/507-b989d1fa-523f-4377-9083-913fd2184143#:~:text=Colder%20air%20is%20coming%20to%20the%20U.S.%20thanks%20to%20the%20polar%20vortex.&text=Late%20in%202020%20and%20early,the%20second%20half%20of%20January.