It’s Enviro-Mama Thursday here on Strocel.com, and today I’m thinking about getting my garden ready for the winter. It’s my One Green Thing for November. But before I get into that, I’ll update you on my One Green Thing for October, which was buying safer makeup.
At the beginning of October I headed to my local organic grocery store and bought some non-toxic makeup: one lipstick, two eyeliners, and two eyeshadows. The makeup ranged in price from $16.99-$19.99, which put it into a more expensive category than most drug store cosmetics, but not alarmingly so. After a month of occasional use I’ve found that I quite like the eyeliner and lipstick, but I’m still not sold on the eyeshadow. It’s more powdery, and with a more limited selection of shades it’s darker than I would have chosen. I’m in the market for a better eyeshadow brush, though, and I think I may look for a brand with a greater colour selection if I buy anymore.
This month, I’ve decided to focus my attention on my garden. I like to grow food, but the truth is that I’m often very haphazard in my approach. For November, my One Green Thing is aimed at changing that. I’ve had ongoing problems with pests eating my plants, and with crops failing or not producing like they should. I realize that, at least in part, this is due to the fact that I haven’t put in much time or thought when it comes to maintaining my garden year-round. I’d like to change that, so this month I’ll be working to winterize my garden.
I want more gardening successes
I’ve had some great successes, and a whole lot of failure in my garden. At this point, I’ve realized that if I want to grow more of my own food consistently, I’m going to need to actually take the time to learn about – and properly tend – my garden. I’m not quite ready to buy a pH meter or a pair of those strap-on gardening knee pads, but I can’t rule it out completely. Hopefully, when I’m enjoying the fruits of my labour next summer, I’ll agree that winterizing my garden and doing a little bit of planning ahead was time well-spent.
Are you a gardener? How do you get your garden winter ready? I could use all the tips I can get! Also, if you’d like to get in on the act and take on One Green Thing of your own, I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to grab the button from this post if you’re blogging about it, and spread the enviro-love.
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Twitter: ourconnections
says:
Thanks for all the links Amber! Very useful info!
amy lee’s last post … making our lives extraordinary
Twitter: christyrollo
says:
I’m a newbie with gardening in raised beds (planter gardening before we moved to a single family home 2 years ago) and I am slowly learning. Like you, I too need to put more thought into what I’m doing and plan properly (maybe even research companion planting to help with the pests). I was super gung-ho through most of the summer, but once fall hit and everyone was back into a routine I forgot about my poor veggie garden. The fall harvest kale and chard was a great feast for the aphids and cabbage butterfly caterpillars (in the past I just picked the few off that I had). Drat. I bought a great book about winter gardening in Canada, including our temperate west coast, and I am making great plans to use the enthusiasm I had in the summer to prep a winter garden next summer, when I should have been doing it. The only thing I’ve done is plant one raised bed with hard neck garlic so I can hopefully enjoy scopes next July in addition to the bulbs. Oh, and we ate my brussels sprouts at Thanksgiving (one more plant to rescue from the caterpillars soon).
http://ecojourneyintheburbs.blogspot.ca/2012/09/garden-reflections-2012.html
Christy’s last post … What’s in a costume?
Twitter: delora
says:
I mulch my garden throughout the summer with grass clippings that I bag while mowing, so I have very little winter prep I need to do for my garden. I usually mulch heavily with shredded leaves (also bagged while mowing), and then in the spring I’ll turn in whatever leaves are left that haven’t composted over the winter.
As an aside, I can’t sing the praises of grass mulching enough! I don’t have to water often since evaporation is minimized, I never weed, and the worms absolutely love all the grass and essentially compost in place. After a few years of doing this, my soil is amazing. Oh, and it’s free since I have to mow the grass anyway.
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
Thanks for the tip! I’ll need to start doing this once I’m mowing again.