Winter sowing and prep work

Welcome to :


Uganda

Yemen

Cyprus

British Indian Ocean Territory

Zimbabwe

Myanmar (Burma)

Nigeria

Kazakhstan

Tunisia

Solomon Islands

Turkmenistan 

Brunei and last but not least a place called "unknown region."  lol

119 countries watching my garden in Maryland.  Crazy.

My goal this year is to plant a HUGE  pollinator garden at our 32 acre farm in Thurmont, Maryland.  Here is the thing.  If we kill off our bugs, we don't have food.  Period.  No fruit, vegetable, coffee, even chocolate.  98 percent of  our insects are just fine.  When we use pesticides to manage insect pests, we have the potential to do harm to the other 98 percent.

At my home, my small 1/3 acre yard is a certified Monarch Way station,  Bay Wise certified (That is the Chesapeake Bay) and my yard has been inspected and approved to be called "Pollinator Friendly."

I have ordered a pound of seed from Johnny's Seeds in Maine.  I chose the bird and butterfly mix.  I have also started a lot of native perennials and annuals that attract pollinators.  I will also be planting host plants for Monarchs and the Baltimore Checkerspot butterflies.   Milkweeds and Chelone Glabra, turtlehead plant.


We have heavy equipment at the farm, so my plan is to have my husband do a shallow till in the front of the horse ring and in front of our front pasture.  I do not want the horses to reach the plants because of possible poisoning.  After the first till, I will wait a few weeks to see what weed seeds germinate.  I will hand cultivate ( also shallowly) to kill the young weeds.  After danger of frost,  I will mix the seed mix with sand and hand scatter the prepared beds.  I have decided to use a hand tamper, as the seeds may stick to the roller we own.  It depends on the moisture level in the soil, so we will see.

Also, by then the plants I have started, both winter sowing and inside starts, will be planted, along with other annual seeds (sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos.)

Winter Sowing!

You take milk cartons, and containers you can make little greenhouses out of,  plant seeds then put them outside.  They will germinate when they are good and ready.  A lot of our natives need stratification to germinate. That is being exposed to cold weather, just as mother nature would handle it. You will notice that the planted milk jugs do not keep their caps on.  Today's batch of milk jugs I tried something different.  I used my soldering iron I use for stain glass soldering.  I poked several holes in the bottom very quickly.  Next time, I am doing it outside. Worked great, but the smell and fumes are awful.

Funny, 32 acres. This is the only safe area away from our horses.