It’s official – Amazon is taking pre-orders on The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Year Round Gardening. Order your copy today so they are not sold out by the time the book is released in February 2010.
This book is so cool because it tells you, no matter what hardiness zone you are in, how to garden year round. It doesn’t matter if you have a heated or unheated greenhouse, garden indoors, use frost covers or cold frames, you can defy nature and grow many varieties of fresh produce year round.
Here in Indiana we have been successful with a variety of produce – lettuce, peas, radish, turnip, carrots, to name a few. In 2008, using season extending ideas like you will find in this book, I planted tomato plants on April 1.
Don’t miss your chance to own this fantastic book. Even seasoned gardeners are sure to learn something – and don’t let the name fool you, The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Year Round Gardening should be on every gardeners’ bookshelf!
Filed under Tropical and Exotic Plants, Year-Round Gardening by on Jan 1st, 2010. Comment. 
It is a cold, snowy 16 degrees F here today. As you can see from the picture above, my little unheated cold frame is not in a protected area. Behind it is the towers of the city water company. Last fall I planted some Wakefield Cabbage in there as well as some lettuce, spinach and radish seed. The lettuce and spinach seed did not germinate for some reason, but the radish seed germinated and grew just fine. Today, January 1, 2010, I was able to harvest fresh radish from inside the cold frame.
I did not use frost cover inside of the cold frame like I should have, nor did we get the bottoms and ends secured. If we had done both of those things, I am sure the harvest would have been better. Some of the smaller radish were frozen and soft, so I put those in the compost pile. The cabbages have faired pretty well, although I suspect they will bolt come spring.
I closed the cold frame up too early last year which meant the inside was much warmer than what cool crops like it. I was in a hurry and not really thinking about venting it on warm days.
After harvesting the radishes and pulling any tiny weeds that were trying to sprout, I used my handy circle hoe to work the top of the ground. The soil was quite dry and easy to work.
The next thing I did was water the raised beds. I did not drench the soil, I just gave it a gentle watering with a watering can. The top half inch or so of the soil is damp. That should be damp enough to allow the seeds to begin to germinate. In another couple of days, I will go back out and give the soil another sprinkling of water.
There are two beds inside of this particular cold frame. One is half filled with cabbage and the other half of that bed is where the radish were. I left that area unplanted for now. It will be the next area I plant, but for today, I chose to use the bed where nothing had been growing. I chose seeds from Renee’s Garden. Today I planted Romeo Round Baby Carrots and Asian Baby Leaf Gourmet Mesclun Salad. Both of these should do fine. I do not expect the seeds will germinate immediately, but we shall see.
We are in Indiana, zone 5/6. So as you can see, with a little protection is is possible to have a year-round garden, even in a cold climate. Want know more? Than check out The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Year-Round Gardening by Sheri Ann Richerson and Delilah Smittle.
Filed under Tropical and Exotic Plants, Vegetable Gardening, Year-Round Gardening by on Jan 1st, 2010. 2 Comments.
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