Winter Garden Journal

January 30, 2015 by Missy Rakes 4 Comments

Sadly the only thing growing around here is my aloe vera plant and some green onions on my kitchen windowsill. So I bought myself some carnations (my favorite flower!) to help beat the winter blahs. It’s amazing how much fresh flowers can lift my spirits in freezing cold weather. It’s actually supposed to be warm the next few days so we will be soaking it up!

We are in the process of buying a house with land which is super exciting, but it kind of puts a wrench in my garden plans. I’m still planning on starting as much as I can from seed at this house and then transferring them very carefully to the new house. Did I mention that the new house has a beautiful brick sunroom which will be the PERFECT spot for seed starting next year?!? Yeah I’m pretty excited. The house needs a lot of work so we probably won’t be moving in until late spring/early summer. I’m a little bummed to be leaving our apple tree, blueberries, strawberries and garlic though…

I ordered my seeds last week and I’m eagerly awaiting their arrival. I may have gone overboard since I basically have as much land as I need for a garden this year, but only time will tell. 🙂

Since not much is going on in the garden, I thought I would do a quick update on our chickens. Two of our original girls died and so we had to replace them. Right now our flock consists of an Ameraucana, Rhoda Island Red, Welsummer, Barred Rock and Red Sex Link.

Our Ameraucana started laying in the Fall and then got broody and we haven’t seen eggs from her since. Our Rhode Island Red started laying a few weeks ago and we are getting around 1 egg per day from her. Welsummer (the only other full-grown bird) hasn’t started laying yet. I’m hoping once we get through the next few months of cold and dark they will all start laying.

Are you doing any garden planning? Do you know why my Welsummer hasn’t started laying yet?? (She is around 10 months old). I’d love to know! 🙂

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Rebecca N says

January 30, 2015 at 10:10 am

Congratulations on the new house! How exciting! Last fall we made our garden bed bigger so I will have a larger variety of things this year. I do not start from seed but buy GMO free plants from our local Amish/Mennonite store. My garden is still fairly small even with the expansion so it isn't too expensive to do it that way. My 13 year old son has decided he will plant corn, so he is in the process of planning the space he needs for that. He also would like to get chickens, so we are looking for a reasonable chicken coop and then will get about a dozen chicks. Unfortunately, neither my husband and I are handy so we have to look for a already built coop rather than building one by ourselves.

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- Missy Rakes says
  
  January 30, 2015 at 11:23 am
  
  Good luck with the chicks! We bought our girls as pullets because we don't have space for chicks, but I plan on trying to raise them at our new place. We've haven't had a lot of luck with corn either, but I plan on trying again this year. :)
  
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Megan @restoring the roost says

January 31, 2015 at 9:56 pm

Congrats on buying a new house! That is so exciting. We have been looking for a while but nothing seems right yet. Your pullets are looking good- hope the rest start laying for you soon :)

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Amanda says

February 2, 2015 at 9:19 am

Congratulations on the new house! We were in the same boat last year with selling our house. I pulled all the large green tomatoes I could from my garden (on August 15 - very early in the season in WI!) and let them ripen on a windowsill - I really miss the old garden, but am SO VERY EXCITED to plan our new one this year on TWO ACRES!!! Granted, it will be a lot of work, but work that I am so excited for I can hardly wait! You have a good plan to start the seeds and bring them with you to the new place. Just having the normalcy of seed starting will be good during that transition! Good luck and God Bless you during this stressful time!

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