What's growing in January

Right now the garden is growing: onions, garlic, broccoli, carrots, beets. These are hardy enough that our light frosts won't damage them and were planted in August/September. The peas are a couple of feet tall and the recent warm spell has them blooming. We'll be eating fresh peas before the end of the month.

Beets, Peas, and Broccoli

There are tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes, bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, and jalapeno peppers growing in seedling trays under a flourescent light in the tool shed. These will all be set out in early February assuming we don't have colder weather. In past years we've been safe setting tomatoes out in late January (and these were our best harvests) but there is a risk of an extra cold night frosting them.



Tomato Seedlings

 I'm a bit over-enthusiastic about gardening, so don't feel badly if you purchase flats of plants from the local big box store every spring. There was a year that we had lots of rain in January and February which propagated mildew, which killed all the nursery seedlings. That year was a lesson in self-reliance. We didn't have enough tomatoes for the garden and I decided it was time to learn to grow our own. This has become another facet of my gardening hobby and I can plant 50 tomatoes for a few dollars instead of paying $$ for each plant.