Gardening? But it's JANUARY!

I get to giggling when I mention my gardens in the Winter. I hear the sentiment: " Gardening, but it's January!" Believe me, I am fully aware that it's freezing cold, snowy and crappy outdoors! In my home, and for many friends, January begins the garden planning for the coming Spring.

2015, we expanded our garden area, and were sadly disappointed when the weather didn't cooperate to allow for a decent garden. In 2016, The expanded garden is being used, the lower garden will be used, and several new garden areas are being added. As I have mentioned in my meal planning and budgeting blogs, we grow food to help reduce the expenses of having to purchase everything at a store. We grow or raise the majority of our foods, normally. We have a calf every year we raise for butchering, we have 1-2 pigs we raise, and typically chickens as well, although, all my hens have died now so we will be starting from scratch real soon. My gardens are to serve the purpose of providing our vegetables and fruits. I work hard to grow these fruit and vegetables, so I can preserve them so we have garden fresh produce year round. It's a lot of work, it's frustrating at times, it takes a true effort to keep up with weeds/pickings/and critters. I refuse to use any chemicals on our gardens or in our animals, although I know they are sure to get some from the field run-off. I plant a TON of sunflower seeds every year to help soak up whatever chemicals may infect our ground.

Learning to garden was something I was taught as a kid, however, gardening for a purpose took on a life of its own as I began preserving food several years ago. As I mentioned many times, I married a country boy. He grew up with raising/growing his own food. I didn't. I have since learned, and it's become a truly enjoyable and rewarding experience for me...even when the weather doesn't cooperate. My gardens are my peaceful place. Getting my hands and toes in the freshly worked dirt, even when it's still cool from Winter, is like coming home. It's refreshing, and exhilarating! The beginning of every season, is like a fresh start, and one that is rewarding to boot!

January is usually my planning month for that year's garden. I plan for the types of fruits/vegetables I plan to grow, an approximate location of where they will be planted, how I need to rotate the crops for optimal nutrition and I look back on my notes to see what I need to do differently from the prior year. Yes, my notes usually remind me that I did something way wrong, and I need to learn how to make it better. For me, planning my garden and growing my garden, is not just a simple task of working up the ground, throwing some seeds or plants there, watering when needed and being done. Since our gardens are planted to provide for a year's supply of preserved food...there is so much more that goes into it.

Once you have a rough list of what to plant, then I make a list of what I need to preserve. Usually, it's made to not only increase our preserved foods, but also to replace anything we have run out of or didn't get preserved the prior year. The past 2 years were especially difficult with an uncooperative Mother Nature so my grocery budget more than doubled. I was not happy when I realized how much my efforts actually did help our overall budget. So, I have to make better and more precise efforts to get a better crop/return this year. Another lesson learned!

My 2015 garden was atrocious! I threw everything I could into a single garden(I normally have 3), and getting between rows took an act of Congress!!! That was a repeat lesson throughout the entire growing season! I will not be doing that again! I will replace my entire yard, make it a great big 5 acre garden before I make that mistake again! The rows were way to close together, the plants were hard to get to, I couldn't get plants staked like they needed to because there was not room for the stakes, and the weeds ended up taking over. Not to mention a wet year, so everything was done in the mud, the ground(when it did dry) ended up like concrete, and I neglected to stay on top of everything once it got overwhelming.

My 2016 gardens, are looking a little intimidating but necessary. Everything I have preserved over the last couple of years, is gone, aside from a handful of green bean jars and a handful of carrot jars. I think there is enough left for 2 meals a piece. Not good since we are only in January and I still have about 6 months before I can start preserving again.

My garden list for 2016, is still flexible but looking pretty good. Our typical vegetables/fruits, along with some new ones. Making the conscience effort to get our family back to eating healthier than store bought, and to become pretty self-reliant once again. As I said, gardening for me, is a job. It involves year round planning/action. It requires time, energy, effort, and an investment.

My gardens this year look to include: corn, potatoes(red and yellow), sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, green beans, horticulture beans, kidney beans, zucchini, golden zucchini, beets, carrots, cabbage, onions, radishes, lettuce, spinach, kale, swiss chard, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, peaches, cherries, grapes, pears, plums, pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, and spaghetti squash. I am also venturing into herbs, garlic, horseradish, rhubarb, asparagus, and jelly/jam. This should be the first year of getting fruit off our trees that were planted when we first moved up here, but I don't expect much. We had a handful of grapes last year, but hope for more this year.

Preserving food is another effort that pays off, but it sure is time consuming in the moment. I love the beauty of preserved food sitting in my pantry, in the middle of Winter, but it takes an effort to get that pulled off. I am pushing myself into learning the art of jelly and jam making, and drying foods to preserve them. Making my own ground spices has been something I have wanted to learn, and now I am ready to tackle that.

In addition to growing the food my family will eat, I am venturing into growing food to feed our livestock. I have studied, asked questions and again, I'm ready to see where this adventure will take me. We are having to begin anew with fresh chickens, so what better time to get some personal growth with knowledge?! Researching chickens that are best suited for our area, our climate, and in production and finding ones that are docile enough to have as a flock around kids has been fun. IF you aren't aware, there are millions of different types of chickens! Not all are good to have on a homestead, not all are good for laying eggs year round, not all are "tamable," and not all will survive our Northern Missouri climate. I have looked for breeds that are docile, ones that will still lay eggs throughout our colder months, and ones that available to us without having to purchase a large number of birds. As a general rule of thumb for me, I want enough birds to guarantee my family will have a dozen eggs a day, minimum. That way, if we have company or a family member needs eggs, we will not cut our household short. You can count on, once the chickens begin laying, each chicken will lay a single egg per day. So, if you have 7 birds, you should get 7 eggs each day. I want our flock to consist of 20-25 hens and a rooter. The rooster will help fertilize any eggs we set aside, so that we can have chicks to replace the older chickens. We seriously neglected this strategy! Now, we have no chickens, which in turn results to no eggs. So, for the first time in 5 years, I have to buy crappy store bought eggs. Yes, there is a huge difference!

So in addition to my garden planning, I am planning for new chickens, a new shelter for those chickens, chicken runs, and of course, planning for growing the food they will consume. You can purchase chicken feed, and for the most part, it's a decent base. However, for farm raised chickens, on our little homestead, I prefer food that doesn't include chemicals. It's fun making all the preparations, but it's also time consuming. I guess it all falls back to anything worth having takes work!

Preserving food for our home becomes a roulette game sometimes. Trying to judge how much of something you need to plant to get the amount you need to preserve. I always try to error on the side of planting too much as opposed to not enough! A typical year of preserving for me consists of: tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, chili sauce, salsa, green beans horticulture beans(I use in chili), kidney beans, carrots, pickled beets, canned potatoes and stored to use throughout the winter, corn, zucchini, canned and stored sweet potatoes, frozen packages of onions and green peppers, half green peppers, whole green peppers, jalapenos, not to mention canning some meat, and precooked meals.

Needless to say, to plan for a year's supply of food for my family, takes planning and a whole lot of hope that Mother Nature will play nice! I hope you will enjoy the months of blogs to come, sharing with you my gardening, chickens, livestock, and food preserving! It's sure a love of mine, and so rewarding when my efforts pan out!

So, for all those giving me static over garden planning in January....This is why I start planning in January. By March, when I can start planting, I should be ready! :-)

Dreaming of dirt,
Salli