Gardeners Grow Together Week 10, 2021: Getting Started

Welcome to my special gardening page for those of you who like to garden yourselves! Each week, I will make suggestions as to what gardening tasks we need to do every week during the growing season. It will help keep you on track~ as well as myself!

To keep things simple, I am using the year's weekly number, Week #1 through #52 (example: the week of January 1 is Week #1), instead of specific dates.

So, come on! Let's get our hands dirty!

Clean, sharpen and oil your gardening tools.

Now is the time to make sure everything is sharp and repaired and ready to work. It will make your life so much easier!

Get out your pencil and paper

and start planning out your garden, if you haven't done so already.

Gather your seed starting supplies,

if you are planning to grow your own plants from seed. Make sure your seed trays and/or pots are scrubbed clean and disinfected.

Order seeds

Buy seeds online or buy them at the garden center or big box stores. They are stocking up now and the earlier you get them, the more choices you will have.

It's not too late to Winter Sow seeds!

Plant all your cold loving vegetables and flowers in jugs and set them outside to do their thing. Click here for more info.

Start tomato and pepper seeds

Plant your tomato and pepper seeds now to give them plenty of time to get big enough to go outside. Start them in seed trays and put them in a warm spot to germinate (70-75 F) . Once they have sprouted, move them to a very sunny window, or under grow lights . Once they have two true leaves (not the original two embryo leaves), prick them out and plant them in 2 1/2 or 3 inch pots with a good organic potting mix. Put them back in the bright light again until planting time.

Prune roses

Prune out the "3 D's", Dead, Damaged and Diseased canes. Also, prune out any crossing canes or canes that are rubbing together and any canes growing towards the center of the plant. For shrub and hybrid tea roses, prune back about 1/3 of the plant and prune to an outside leaf bud. Try to prune them into a goblet shape to keep the center open for air flow.

For climbing roses, try to train the canes as horizontally as possible. They only bloom on horizontal branches.Trim off any vertical stems down to one or two buds. If they are totally out of control, you can cut them all the way back. They will bloom on new growth. If you want to train them over a tall structure, like an arch or obelisk, wrap young flexible canes either around the structure, or in a zigzag pattern to make the canes more horizontal. Other wise, you will only have flowers at the top of the plant.

Ramblers, on the other hand, only bloom on last year's growth, and should only be pruned right after flowering. If you don't know what you have, you can wait a year and observe before pruning any climbing rose. Ramblers usually have clusters of small flowers, are very vigorous growers and only bloom once a year in spring and early summer.

Cut back ornamental grasses

to ground level.

Last, but certainly not least, start building your "No Dig" garden!

~Lee Ann~

Valmont Valley Farm

Where Beautiful Magic is Always in Bloom

If you would like to join in supporting my flower farm and receive beautiful bouquets weekly, please sign up for my Flower CSA! Get all the details here!

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