Less Noise, More Green: My February Garden and Kitchen To Do list

Thursday, February 12, 2015

My February Garden and Kitchen To Do list

February Garden and Kitchen  Tasks, snowed over hell strip
My hell strips are under all that snow.

I'm serious about home food production this year. I'm also serious about lists. I make lists of all the lists I'm going to make and that is not a joke (but I'll put 'make a joke' on the list). Put these two things together and you get a Monthly Gardening and Kitchen 'Honey Do' List. In this house, I am both the Honey and the List Maker, which is convenient. Here is what I'm working on this month:


February Garden Tasks
Just one look out of the snow covered windows will tell you there is no gardening happening any time soon. Here is what I am doing to plan for my zone 6b garden here in Rhode Island:

February Garden and Kitchen  Tasks, order seeds

  • Ordering seeds, plants and slips for all my gardens. 
  • Finishing the bed designs, including crop rotations.
  • Updating my seed starting calender to include new varieties this year.
  • Updating my monthly To Do Guide. This is a lot of work now, but in the middle of July I really appreciate having a list to follow.
  • Work on ripping up my pile of newspaper to use in the compost bin.
Hell Strip Garden
I've been sourcing plants for my hell strip garden and the need to use plants that are snow and salt tolerant has never been more apparent than in the last few weeks. My hell strips are under several feet of snow and road salt and, according to the weather forecasters, we are not done with the white stuff yet.

Indoor Garden Tasks

February Garden and Kitchen  Tasks, harvest grow light lettuce

One cheery green spot in my life is the lettuce growing under the grow lights. I love watering and taking care of these little plants. They give me hope.  Here are my other tasks this month:

February Garden and Kitchen  Tasks, propagating rosemary and lavender
  • Propagate cuttings from the rosemary and lavender I have growing under the lights. 
  • Start the first seeds of the season- broccoli.
  • Start growing sprouts in my sprout trays. This year I'm growing upland cress. Just waiting for the seeds to arrive.
  • Finish sanitizing pots for seed starting. 

Other Gardening Related Tasks

February Garden and Kitchen  Tasks, assemble bee hive
My dog Bandit loves that spot on the bumper. There could be many reasons for that, none of which I really need to know.
 Bees
  • I bought my hive this month but it needs some assembly and painting. The painting can wait until I can do it outside but I can assemble the frames.
February Garden and Kitchen  Tasks, vermicomposting
This is my new vermicompost bin after assembly - I do not keep it on the living room!


Vermicomposting
  • Continue to monitor my new project. I don't expect to have a finished tray of vermicompost this month.

February Kitchen Tasks

This is a quiet month in the kitchen for preserving but these are some of my tasks this month:

February Garden and Kitchen  Tasks, using raw milk

  • I am concentrating on the production of dairy products using raw milk.
  • Researching lacto-fermentation as a way to use all the whey I am creating with the dairy!
  • Doing an inventory of all home canned, dried and frozen fruits, veg and meals, now that all the fresh veggies are gone from my winter store.

What are your goals for the rest of the month?

Sue



2 comments:

  1. well, here in Cranston I have to finish building my greenhouse and the two new potato beds. Off to a late start this year, last year I was planting greens, onions, peas and radishes at this time. Hopefully we will be on are way soon! Thanks for all the handwork you put into your site.

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    1. You are so right about the late start! At least I've been able to plant indoors under grow lights. I'm envious of your new greenhouse, though. I just don't have the room or the right sun exposure for one.

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