Friday, January 2, 2009

Gardening in January!


Today is warm and windy, the usual snow-is-coming winter tease in Colorado. My daughter and I began our garden today! Those of you in zone 5 or cooler will think me daft, but in fact we started seeds that require cold stratification. We planted organic peach and apricot seeds I saved last summer. We also planted perennials in covered recycled plastic pots.

To learn how, check out these articles:

Mother Earth News - Free Fruit Trees

Wintersowing

We planted lots of xeric (drought resistant) flowers like echinacea, columbine, penstemon, and bee balm. I can't wait for the teeny sprouts to come up in a few months. I have a vast spread of mulched yard that needs a good xeriscape garden. Since buying enough seedlings to fill the space would be cost prohibitive, I'm going with winter sowing my perrenials. Easy and fun - and it gave me a much-needed mid-winter boost. It felt so good to dig in the dirt! I'll be ready for the next burst of snow.

3 comments:

Courtney Putnam said...

Oh what a hopeful blog post you've given me today, Clea! Seattle has had three days of sunshine (amazing for this time fo year!) and I've been feeling this strong yearning for spring. And to think that you are planting already. Oh, what hope that gives me for green, blossoming things to come!

Courtney

Helen said...

My mom has good success planting trees from seeds. I don't know how much fruit she gets from them but with Colorado weather you never know what kind of crop you will get anyway.

Clea Danaan said...

What trees has she planted, Helen? So far one of my peach seeds rotted, but the other one seems fine. The wintersown seeds all seem in good shape, though I won't know for sure until spring. :)