Boy, is it cold!

The weatherman reported it would be cold the next two days and my phone notified me the temperatures are going to plummet but I don’t think I was prepared for this. It’s been a long time since it’s been this cold. 13-Fahrenheit (-10-Celsius) but it feels like 3-Fahrenheit (-16-Celsius) at nearly 8:30 in the morning.

This is January temperatures in December!

I have been working through my winter blues by sort of gardening again. No, I’m not gardening outside, not with temperatures like that.

I had two pepper plants brought inside in October to overwinter. In the soil next to the pepper plants, I sowed some lettuce seeds about two weeks ago. It actually germinated last week (I was surprised). So far, it’s growing very slowly either because of not enough light or because it knows it’s winter.

As an experiment, I planted ginger in a 3-gallon grow bag. I got the ginger from a grocery store, broke it into pieces, let it heal first before soaking it overnight to dissolve the growth inhibitor so it’ll sprout. They were then planted in soil last Friday, December 9.

According to the internet, ginger can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 8 weeks to sprout. Some even say days by keeping them soaked in water. I checked it a few days ago, nothing had happened. I feel like I might be doing something wrong. Maybe the soil is too dry? Waiting for this thing to sprout is more frustrating than reading a story with a cliffhanger.

I also separated the pups (baby aloe vera plants) from the mother Aloe Vera plant on November 18. The pups weren’t doing so great after the separation but a few days ago, lo and behold, I saw new growth. It made me feel hopeful again. Maybe the internet is right, Aloe Vera doesn’t die easily.

I have been listening to gardening podcast all week and it makes me feel like it might be time for me to plan my 2023 garden. It feels like it’s a little too soon but at the same time, it feels like it’s the perfect time to do such a thing.

One thing I’m absolutely going to experiment is planting potatoes in my Greenstalk Vertical Planter. I’ve been listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos, it looks like most people are successful in planting potatoes in either raised beds or containers.

I am not going dedicate a space in my precious raised beds to plant potatoes. I think I have the best quality soil in those and not prepared to give up the space. I have plans for those beds. I thought about filling a new 30-gallon grow bag for potatoes but where would I put it?

I definitely need a set of augers for the garden. I don’t think I can spend another year digging by hand, especially because the soil in the flower patch is incredibly poor. I’m hoping to amend the soil in spring and plant some blackberry canes there. That way I’ll have berries for summer.

I also hope to empty a couple of the 7-gallon grow bags by planting the perennial flowers that are in the grow bags now in the flower patch by the back fence. Again, I’ll need an auger to dig those holes for me.

Ooh, I almost forgot, the garden hoops I bought from the Cyber Monday sale has finally arrived. I hope to get it set up once the soil thaws to a point so I plant leafy greens into the summer months as well as protect them from those pesky insects trying to eat my veggies.

Last but not least, I am already counting down the days when I’ll be starting seeds indoors for the new garden season. It’s so exciting to me especially when the seed-leaves peek out of the soil.