Yardening

Winter officially begins in January in NC. The highs tend to be in the 40-50s range and lows in the 30-40s. Just cold enough that the thought of growing anything outside is accompanied by a lot of whining. However, I am the boss of me, so I can make myself do things, right?

I have been seeing a lot of posts in my plants groups online about milk jug greenhouses. The idea is that you plant seeds that grow native to your area in growing medium, but do it in a bissected plastic gallon milk jug. You place it outside with the split jug taped on the seams, cap off and holes in the bottom for drainage.

Why, you ask? Well, plants have evolved life cycles. When you get as close as you can to replicating that in your gardening practices, you’re more likely to have success, all while using the least amount of time and money to do so. This means leaving mature plants alone – including letting them go to seed at the end of the season, which inevitably means that they will drop seeds right there and grow more of itself in it’s growing season.

The problem with this is that the plant’s healthy ecosystem includes creatures who will harvest the seeds for their bellies. *Usually, this means that you will get plant babies, but not always. So, milk jugs to keep the wee beasties away.

Collect or buy seeds, place them in the milk jug (*see large plastic food safe container with a lid) with the chosen dirt, and tape it closed so that no one can eat the seeds. Place it outside so that it will get the benefit of seasonal changes that are part of its life cycle (aka cold stratification) and occasionally water through the hole in the top to mitigate the loss of rain due to the smaller hole in the top. Et voila, plants in a jug.

Here I go sowing to counter the slowing of winter.