Several years ago I learned the difference between several varieties of maple trees. Disappointingly, and more to whit, I learned that the kind of maple trees I had on my property were Norway maples, not sugar maples. Dave and Stuart McLean of The Vinyl Café had already taught me that it takes a LOT of tree sap to make even a small amount of syrup, and with the wrong type of tree the romance of boiling our own syrup seemed unattainable.
Month: February 2023
Winter Sowing
Ok, better late than never, let’s see if I can jump on the winter sowing train in the latter half of winter, eight weeks before my last frost date.
I store my carrots in sand over the winter (this is relevant, I promise). I have two containers of them, and the other day I cleared the last carrots out of the first one, leaving me with a big clear tupperware containing a few inches of leftover sand. It occurred to me that I could use that container, with the sand, for winter sowing – and in fact the sand might be helpful.
The point of winter sowing is to set up mini greenhouses outside that will allow plants to germinate a little sooner than they would in the bare elements. This lets gardeners get a head start on the growing season without taking up indoor growing space and without the need to ‘harden off’ the plants before setting them outdoors (they’re already outdoors, they don’t need to harden up to being used to being outdoors). Any mostly clear plastic or glass will do to create the greenhouse, and recycled salad boxes, milk jugs and tupperwares are common.
Now, a greenhouse will warm up during the day from solar heat being trapped within the clear walls, but generally when the sun goes away the temperature within a greenhouse quickly returns to the surrounding temperature – unless it is insulated or unless it has a ‘heat sink’ inside it. A heat sink is anything that will absorb heat during the day, and slowly release it over night. Water or rocks are both examples of heat sinks. And so is sand.
So, when I removed the last of the carrots from my clear tupperware container of sand, my mind started wondering if I was now looking at a mini greenhouse pre-equipped with a heat sink, perfect for a slightly elevated winter sowing system.
A scientist would compare the tupperwares with and without the sand, but I’m not feeling like doing a head-to-head trial this year. We’re at ‘proof of concept’ only. I gathered 10 small potting containers (old solo cups, plant cells and a yogurt container – all with drainage holes) and filled them with well moistened potting mix. I tucked each container into the sand, so the bottom several inches have the sand wrapped around them like a blanket. I generously sprinkled seeds on the surface of each container of soil (one type of seeds per container), labelled them, watered them in, then put the lid on the tupperware and placed it outside in the snow.
If all goes well, as Spring arrives I should start to see little shoots – and on warm days I’ll vent the lid so the plants don’t cook, and hopefully I’ll have some starts to put in the ground eight weeks from now.
Meanwhile, my first seedlings are doing fairly well but I won’t be starting anything else until after March break. We’re going away, and while my husband has set up an impressive computerized watering system for my indoor plants, it doesn’t quite have the sophistication to handle neonatal tomatoes. With a seedling heat mat I’m pretty sure I can make up for lost time – and hopefully the winter sowing will also take some of the pressure off for the indoor starts! Fewer to start, more room to work with on the growing racks.
In other garden updates, we had a little false Spring blip this month when all the snow melted and the ground wasn’t even frozen – my chives started growing and my peach tree tree optimistically started budding. We’re back to freezing temperatures again, and while the chives will recover I’m worried that my peach may suffer some lasting damage. Evidence in my own yard of how climate change is going to, and already is, threatening food supply…
How-to make newspaper pots (no gadgets required)
Most people start indoor seeds in small pods or sow many seeds in one small pot, and in many cases this will only keep the roots happy for a short time. They will need a bigger intermediary container before they are ready to go outside. Some common choices for this intermediate container includes specially purchased pots from a nursery, old yogurt pots, red solo cups, or my favourite, newspaper pots.
Newspaper pots are awesome because in most cases they are free, they provide excellent drainage and air flow for plant root development, and the pots themselves are biodegradable in a city or home compost system.
Many places will see gadgets to make newspaper pots, but you don’t need them at all! Any cylinder the same diameter as the newspaper pot you want to create will do, plus long strips of newspaper that will wrap around that cylinder at least twice and are about as tall as half the diameter of the cylinder plus your target pot height. The best type of cylinder frame, in my opinion, is a wine bottle with a recessed bottom.
Making the pot doesn’t require any tape or glue, it will stay based on the way you roll and fold the paper, and when you fill the pot with a little soil that will also help the structure.
To start, lay your strip of matte newspaper down flat (doesn’t matter if it’s coloured or black and white). Place the wine bottle, or whatever you’re using, along one edge with some overhang of the paper (which you fill fold in to become the bottom). Roll the paper around the bottle, fold in the bottom, and ease the pot away. It’s actually difficult to explain without the visual, so please click on the video above to see it in action!