Winter Sowing in a Snowy Winter Wonderland

Winter Sowing Containers Outside in the Snow

WINTER SOWING TUTORIAL

WHO could winter sow? Anyone!

Yes, even if you’re a beginner gardener, you can start planting some seeds now. Even if it’s freezing cold where you live, you can plant seeds for your garden now. Even if you don’t have grow lights—which, trust me, are a must for most indoor seed starting—you could start seeds now. Winter sowing is easy and possible for anyone. Winter sowing refers to starting seeds outdoors during the winter in DIY mini greenhouses made from plastic containers. The seeds sprout when the weather warms up just like seeds that have fallen to the ground naturally.

WHY winter sow? To get more plants, of course!

Growing plants from seeds is cheaper than buying plants, and starting seeds with the winter sowing method is cheaper than starting them indoors. Plus, it’s a great way to reuse plastic containers instead of sending them straight to the recycling bin. Here are more advantages to this method of seed starting as described by Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_sowing – 1/20/19

The last one is my favorite! I’m glad I got a screenshot of that page before it was corrected. Like Abraham Lincoln said, don’t believe everything you read on the internet. In any case, it’s thanks to the internet that winter sowing has taken the gardening world by storm. Trudi Greissle Davidoff first coined the term and documented her experiments on www.wintersown.org. Today you can find instructions, photos, and discussions of winter sowing not only on that website but all over the internet.

WHAT to winter sow?

I recommend that you start with the best candidates for winter sowing: seeds of cold hardy or semi-hardy annuals and of perennials that are suited to your growing zone. Trudi has several lists on her website. You can also look for seed packet and catalog descriptions that say things like this: hardy, self-sowing, colonizing, withstand frost, stratify, stratification, or direct sow in early spring/late fall or as soon as the ground can be worked. Using such descriptions and different plant lists, I made my own personalized list of plants that I’d like to winter sow here in zone 5b.

Perennial: a plant that can live outdoors for more than one growing season

Annual:  a plant that can live outdoors for one growing season in your zone

Hardy Annuals can tolerate cold soil and cool weather, down to the low 30s. These plants can survive some frost and snow.

Semi- or Half-Hardy Annuals can tolerate cool soil and cool weather, down to 40˚F. These plants might survive a light frost.

Tender Annuals require warm soil and warm weather. These plants do not do well in temperatures below 50˚F.

You could also grow tender annuals with this method. However, if you have a short growing season like I do, it may not be worth it. Winter sown tender annuals, such as tomatoes, will be smaller than indoor-started seedlings at transplanting time, so harvesting won’t begin until later in the season. That means fewer tomatoes! If I have extra seeds for tomatoes or other tender plants, I might winter sow some, but not all of them. One year I winter sowed celery seeds and also started some indoors under grow lights on the same date. The winter sown celery seedlings were smaller, yet I planted them anyway wherever I could find some room. They never grew to be as big as their brothers, but they were edible.

WHEN to winter sow?

Winter sowing, as the name suggests, is done in the winter—that’s whenever winter is in your part of the world. It doesn’t matter if your winter is freezing cold and snowy or just cool and rainy. And you can do it at any time during the winter. Here in zone 5, some folks start at the winter solstice; others prefer to wait until after the holidays and start in January. I tend to do my winter sowing in February. Once March rolls around, I get more involved in indoor seed starting. I also go outside and start direct sowing cold hardy annuals in my kitchen garden beds. I see no need to buy potting mix and cut up jugs to use this process for seeds that are easily direct sown, straight into the garden soil.

The beauty of winter sowing is that you don’t have to worry about exactly when to sow your seeds. Unlike indoor seed starting, there’s no counting back 6 to 10 weeks from your average last frost date. Let the seeds figure that out! You plant them anytime in the winter, and when the weather is right for them to come up, they will.

Start perennials and cold hardy annuals first; then start the semi-hardy plants; and lastly, start the tender annuals.

If you’re winter sowing tender annuals in a cold zone, however, you might want to put off starting them until March or even April for the tenderest ones. If you sow them sooner and an early warm spell causes them to pop up early, you’ll have to protect those seedlings through any freezes until it’s time to transplant them into the garden. The more tender the plant, the later it should be sown. In general, you should start perennials and cold hardy annuals first; then start the half- or semi-hardy plants; and lastly, start the tender annuals.

Here’s a list of vegetables and herbs, grouped by their hardiness levels. I put this handy chart together for a book that I’m writing, and the book will include a similar chart for flowers.

Hardiness Levels of Vegetables & Herbs

HOW to winter sow?

Prepare the Containers

If you look around the internet or join any winter sowing groups, you’ll see that when it comes to making winter sowing containers, it is to each his own. This is how I do it. You can use any container that is tall enough to accommodate your seedlings as they grow and transparent enough to see your hand through its side. The most popular kind is gallon-size plastic jugs. We drink a lot of distilled water, so I use those. They’re great because they’re already sterile so I don’t have to wash them.

  1. Wash and sterilize the containers, if needed, and then let them dry.
  2. Make drainage holes in the bottom. I create slits with a small knife, and I give it a little twist to make the holes wider—4 holes in each jug. Vent holes are also needed at the top of winter sowing containers, so for these jugs with narrow openings, I just remove and discard the caps.
  3. Use scissors to cut almost all the way around the jug about 4 inches up from the bottom and leave a hinge on the handle side. 
  4. Use a hole puncher to punch a hole in the top and another in the bottom at the corner opposite the hinge. This way I can put a twist tie through those holes to fasten my container shut. Most people seal their jugs with duct tape after they’ve planted them. My method is easier than dealing with sticky tape, especially if you have to open and close the jugs later.

Label the Containers

I use a grease pencil. This year I’m experimenting with crayons, too.

I write the name of the seed variety to be sown on both the bottom and top part of the jug because the top parts will get cut off later. Plant only one type of seed per container to avoid confusion. Use smaller containers, such as 2-liter bottles, if you’re planting only a few seeds.

Remember that these containers will be outside for several months, exposed to direct sunlight and all the elements. You do not want your labels to fade, so a Sharpie will not be good enough. I use a grease pencil, but my friend Dolly Foster, who has done much more winter sowing than I have, strongly recommends the Garden Marker, which is waterproof and UV proof.

Fill the Containers

Filling Winter Sowing Containers with Potting Mix

I use a professional quality soil-less potting mix. It must hold moisture and drain well. Pro-Mix no longer makes my favorite kind, which had no fertilizers added. Since I now have to get a mix with fertilizer, I prefer an organic mix, especially when I’m planting anything edible. You may use a non-organic potting mix for winter sowing, if you want, but be sure to avoid any mix with water-storing crystals.

Mix water into the potting mix until it is damp but not soaked (clumpy but not muddy). I fill the containers at least 3 inches, which is deeper than necessary for indoor seed starting. You don’t need a ruler: the rule of thumb is to fill it to a depth that is about the same as the length of your thumb. Tamp it down a bit and add more potting mix until the depth reaches 3 to 3-1/2 inches.

Plant the Containers

The fresher your seeds, the better. When I first discovered winter sowing, I thought it would be a great way to use up my oldest seeds. Wrong! Hardly anything came up, and it was a waste of time and effort. One to three years old is OK for most seeds. I have experimented and found that I can extend the viability of seeds that don’t have a good germination rate after the first year, such as parsley, by vacuum sealing them. In any case, remember that the older the seeds, the more you should plant because fewer of them will sprout.

Small seeds can be sprinkled on top of the soil and patted down into the soil mix. You do not have to worry about spacing them if you plan to use Trudi’s Hunk-o-Seedlings technique for transplanting them later. Larger seeds should be placed farther apart and then covered with a layer of potting mix equal to their proper planting depth, which is usually equal to the diameter of the seed.

The next step is to water the containers, and I do that one of two ways. One method is to put the containers in my kitchen sink and use the sprayer to give them a gentle and thorough watering. The other method is the same one I use with indoor seed starting, bottom watering. I put the containers in trays that are at least as deep as the soil mix is. Then I add water to the trays and let the containers sit in it until their potting mix is soaked; then drain them.

The last thing to do is to cover and tie them. I slip a twist tie through the holes that I punched into the corner opposite the handle of the jug. Fit the top down snugly over the bottom of the jug on all sides, and twist the tie shut.

WHERE to Winter Sow

Winter Sowing Containers Placed Outside in the Winter

Now the winter sowing containers are ready to go outside in a sunny spot. They can go anywhere that they won’t be disturbed by pets or other animals—on the ground, on a deck, or on a table. In the past I’ve put mine on wire shelves in the corner between our house and the garage, facing southwest. There they won’t get blown around by a strong wind. It’s also easy for me to check on them because they’re right by the garage door. This year I put them in a sunnier spot, on the shelves further out on our driveway. They’re currently sheltered somewhat by the piles of snow out there.

Maintain the Containers

The beauty of the winter sowing system is that you can set and forget the seeds now to a certain extent. You just need to make sure that they do not dry out. If they’re on the ground and they’re covered by snow, they’re fine. Leave them alone. If they’re not covered by snow, peek inside to see if the potting mix looks dry—even if you see condensation is forming inside the containers. If the surface of the potting mix looks dry or the containers feel light when you pick them up, water them. Check more often as the weather warms up. They may need water on sunny days even when it’s in the 30s. Don’t let the seeds dry out.

Transplant Your Winter Sown Seedlings

Later the magic happens. The seeds sprout and tiny plants start to grow. Don’t worry if it’s too cold for them outside; it’s warmer inside their mini greenhouses. However, if you have tender annuals growing and you think a cold snap is going to lower the temperature too much for them, cover them at night. Water your winter sown plants like you would any other seedlings while you’re waiting to plant them.

Remember that these seedlings are already hardened off. They can be transplanted into the garden as soon as they’ve formed at least one set of true leaves—provided that the soil temperature and weather conditions are suitable for their hardiness level. My advice is that the sooner you can get your winter sown seedlings into the ground, the better. I have left some languishing in their jugs for too long. When I finally planted them, they did not take off. Get those little seedlings planted as soon as you can. Once your garden soil is maintaining a warm enough temperature for the plants’ hardiness level, transplant them outside. You’ll plant them out in the same order that you started them: hardy plants first, then the semi-hardy plants, and then the tender ones.

Transplanting Wintersown Hollyhocks

Water the seedlings before you transplant them, and let them sit for a while. When you’re ready to plant them, slide the whole group of seedlings out of the container. If they’re spaced slightly apart from each other, gently pull the individual plants apart, teasing the roots and keeping as much of them as you can with each plant. If the seeds were thickly sown and the plants are all matted together, cut them apart into pieces with a knife. Then use your fingers to pull each piece apart into little clumps of seedlings. Plant those clumps, spacing them as far apart as you would if they were individual plants. Water them in. Keep watering them as needed during the next few days until their roots take and the plants start to grow.

Now you can maintain and enjoy your garden with all these new plants, started from seed.

New Video Demo

You can watch me prepare and plant a winter sowing container from start to finish here on YouTube. If you like the video, please give it a thumbs up and leave your comment or question in the the comments section.

Still have questions? Leave a reply in the comments below to ask them.

Debbie Rea

What about starting seeds indoors?

I’m glad you asked! I’ve been seed starting with traditional indoor methods for longer than I’ve been winter sowing. I recently added information about supplies needed for indoor seed starting to the Shop with The Gardener Wife page.

If you want me to write a tutorial for indoor seed starting, please let me know by leaving a reply in the comment section below.

I may earn commissions for purchases made through any Amazon links in this post. See disclosure here.

It Beets Me! – Making Borscht

Beautiful bowl of homemade borscht made with homegrown beets
Ukrainian Borscht

It’s National Homemade Soup Day—plus Valentines Day is coming up—so I’m posting my Ukrainian family’s recipe for borscht, a beautiful red soup. I first shared this recipe with my newsletter readers a couple of years ago in mid-November. In the course of putting my kitchen garden to bed that fall, I had finally harvested the beets that were interplanted among my tomatoes. I got 6 pounds of beets and a big bunch of beet tops. The secret to using beet greens, by the way, is to treat them like Swiss chard. They look the same and taste the same! You could use beet greens to make Swiss Chard Tortilla Española with my mom’s recipe that I’ve already posted.

The secret to using beet greens is to treat them like Swiss chard. They look the same and taste the same!

The Gardener Wife

Anyway, what’s a Ukrainian girl going to do with all those beets? Make borscht, of course! And salads—I like roasted beets in salads with things like mandarin oranges and goat cheese. I roasted some of the beets for salads and boiled the rest. Then I peeled them all and froze them. Thus most of the prep work was already done.

Here is my recipe for borscht. My mom used to make both red borscht and green borscht for my Ukrainian dad. I always liked the red borscht better. When Mom was still alive, I combined two versions of her recipe—one given to my sister Ann and one given to me—with comments from Mom and Ann to come up with this recipe. My mom, like many great cooks, did not use recipes, so she said something different everytime I asked her about making borscht. This is really more of a guideline than a recipe. Isn’t that how all soups are?

Mary Slobodian’s Ukrainian Borscht

Serves 20

INGREDIENTS
5 pints chicken, pork, or beef *stock (see note)
1 small head cabbage, shredded
1 large jar pickled beets, undrained, OR 1-2 pounds *beets (see note)
1 potato, shredded
1-2 carrots, shredded
1 onion, finely chopped
½ stalk celery, finely chopped [optional]
meat (chicken or other meat reserved from making stock)

1 bunch parsley, chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
white vinegar, to taste (1/2 to 1 cup or more)

sour cream

NOTES

STOCK: Borscht is often made with beef stock, but both Mom and Ann prefer chicken stock. Ann says, “we like to boil the chicken or some pork (bone in) with some bay leaf.  When it falls off the bone…strain it to use the broth for the borscht and use the meat to add to the soup.  We do this almost every time we make it…rather than using just broth.” But Mom says she would not use any bay leaves. She says to chop all the vegetables for the borscht while boiling a whole, uncut chicken for an hour. Then pull the meat off the bones and reserve it. I usually use my homemade chicken stock from the freezer.

BEETS: This recipe used to call for fresh beets, but now Mom prefers using pickled beets, juice and all. Ann says cut back on vinegar then, but Mom says don’t. You could use fresh or pickled beets or a combination of both.

OTHER INGREDIENTS: Like any soup recipe, you can vary the ingredients somewhat according to your taste and what you have available. If you have any other vegetables from your garden or the farmers market which you’d like to use, go ahead and add them. The original recipe Mom gave us included tomatoes and several ingredients that I don’t remember ever being in the Slobodian kitchen—rutabaga, leek, turnip, and parsnip. When I first made borscht for Mom in Ann’s kitchen, she requested several things NOT in the recipe—red onion, red bell pepper, and mushrooms. Perhaps these were things she just had a taste for at that time. The next time I was in town and made it for her, she wanted me to add canned peas and mushrooms even though I was making the regular red borscht, not green borscht. I’ve put her Green Borscht recipe at the bottom of this post in case you’re interested.

DIRECTIONS

Peeling Beets
  1. While cooking stock, wash vegetables and peel them. The easiest way to peel beets is to cook them first and then rub the skin off with a paper towel. Always wear gloves when handling beets, or they will turn your hands red. Grate the beets, potato, and carrots. I recommend a food processor when making a big batch. When I made this in Ann’s kitchen with Mom watching, she said to skip the grating and just slice/chop everything. It just depends on what kind of texture you want for your soup.
  2. Put the stock in a large saucepan and add vegetables. Keep back some of the beets for coloring. This excellent tip came from Ann: adding grated beets at the end gives the borscht a brighter red color.
  3. Bring to boil; then cover and simmer until vegetables are soft, about 50 minutes or so.
  4. At the end, after vegetables are cooked, add the reserved meat. Chop the parsley and garlic into a cup or small bowl; add vinegar. Add this vinegar mixture to the soup and take it off the heat. This finishing touch is very important to Mom. She repeated it many times! However, because of her allergies, I skipped the garlic when I made it for her. I did not cut back on the vinegar. It tasted WONDERFUL!

    Add the reserved grated beets 10 minutes before serving to give the borscht a deep, red color.

TO SERVE: Add a dollop of sour cream to each bowl and eat with a hearty black bread.

Sour cream is essential to Ukrainians. My parents always used the Ukrainian word for it, сметана (pronounced smetana), so I had to read the container to learn its English name. “Sour cream” sounded so strange to me that I hesitated to use it until I heard someone else call it that. I used to mix it into my bowl of borscht, so the red soup would turn pink. Nowadays, I try to put a cool bit of sour cream on every spoonful as I eat it.
 

Green Borscht
(from original recipe Mom gave me)

Replace the beets with one can sweet peas and one can mushrooms. Replace parsley with chopped fresh dill. It is also delicious. —Mom

My dad would say it’s дуже смачно (duzhe smachno), very tasty. He did not grow beets—at least I don’t remember his growing them. But I love that I can make his favorite soup now with beets from my own garden. I hope you’ll try it with whatever kind of beets you can get. It’s wonderful to heat up a bowl of borscht after working outside in the garden or on any cold day!

Steps to Making Borscht—From Harvest to Soup


Snow on Show

Thinking about the gift of God’s love as I looked out on my deck this winter morning. . .

In the Bleak Mid-Winter

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty —
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom Cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom Angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and Archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But only His Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my ❤️ heart.

-Poem by Christina Rossetti, used as lyrics for a hauntingly beautiful Christmas carol.

Sow What about Seed Swapping

Table at Will County Extension Seed Swap
Table at Will County Extension Seed Swap

January 30, 2021, was National Seed Swap Day. Don’t worry if you missed it because there are many seed swapping opportunities throughout the year. Gardeners have, of course, been swapping seeds for ages. And we certainly don’t limit this activity to one day a year!

I wrote about making your own seed packets in my newsletter yesterday, but don’t expect to see many fancy homemade seed packets at seed swaps. You’re more likely to see handwritten or plain printed labels on envelopes of all sizes as most people just grab whatever is cheap and handy. While it’s fun to celebrate National Seed Swap Day by getting together in larger groups to exchange seeds, we couldn’t do that this year. Instead Kathy Jentz, who got the last Saturday in January officially declared National Seed Swap Day in 2006, hosted a chat about how to swap seeds safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides listening to those ideas, you could look around for smaller scale seed swaps in your area, perhaps with pick-up spots at libraries or university extension offices. You could also check with your own group of friends and local garden clubs to see if anyone wants to swap seeds, perhaps with a no-contact porch pick up. Folks in my town’s garden group on Facebook have often posted and shared seeds and plants with each other.

Old seeds aren’t all that’s available through seed swaps however. Fresh seeds may come from gardeners who collect and save seeds from plants growing in their gardens. Good candidates for seed saving and seed swapping must come from plants that are open-pollinated (i.e. not hybrids), so that the seeds will produce plants that are like their parent plants. In addition, seed saving works best with seeds that are self-pollinating (without separate male and female flowers), such as beans, peas, tomatoes, and peppers. I don’t recommend swapping seeds from homegrown cross-pollinating plants, such as cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins and gourds. You never know what to expect if you plant those seeds!

From home gardens:

DO COLLECT seeds from open-pollinated (non-hybrid) and self-pollinating plants—beans, peas, tomatoes, and peppers.

DO NOT COLLECT seeds from hybrid or cross-pollinating plants—cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins and gourds.

Before the pandemic—in fact, before the internet—exchanging seeds through the mail was a common practice. Now online, the Seed Savers Exchange is probably the largest one in the U.S. You can find more mail seed swap groups on social media by searching “seed swap.”

Downers Grove Legacy Seed Library table at Darien Garden Inspiration Day event

Seed libraries are another mechanism for trading seeds. Often housed in actual libraries, they work in a similar way. You can take seeds and sign them out. They’re yours to plant and grow. When your plants produce more seeds, you return some back to the library. I could not find an up-to-date national list of these, but you can search for one near you online by entering your state or county and the words “seed library” in the search. There are two near me, the Lisle Library District Seed Library and the Downers Grove Legacy Seed Library. I’ve met volunteers from the Downers Grove one when they were giving away seeds at an event sponsored by the Darien Garden Club.

See my recent newsletter for seed packet craft ideas and a recipe, Oriental Green Beans, that I like to make with purple pole beans—grown from seeds that I got at a seed swap.

In Remembrance of Rosemary

I got this beautiful rosemary tree as a gift this Christmas, and I hope to help it to live to see a Christmas future. I think its chances are good even though overwintering rosemary indoors used to be quite a challenge for me. In climates where the winters are not as harsh, it can be left outside and will eventually grow into a large shrub. Here in zone 5b you can try leaving it out for the winter if you’ve planted it in a spot with a warmer microclimate. Even then, however, you’ll need to protect it if a severe freeze comes along. Someday, when I’m braver, I will try leaving a rosemary plant outside and see what happens.

“There’s Rosemary for you, that’s for remembrance! Pray you, love, remember.”

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HAMLET

For now I just grow it in containers and bring those containers inside for the winter. Alas, rosemary doesn’t like the dry heat in my home even though we have a whole house humidifier. I tried a number of things in the past—pebble trays, misting, and even a terrarium—but met with little success.

Painted dead rosemary shrub at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Dead and painted rosemary at the Chicago Botanic Garden

I know I’m not the only one who struggles to keep rosemary alive. How many of you have bought a sweet little rosemary tree during the holiday season only to see it fizzle out by February? Take courage, for here are some tips to remember.

  1. Plant rosemary in a large container. Do not plant it in the ground if you hope to bring it inside for the winter. Rosemary doesn’t like to be transplanted, and when you combine transplanting it with moving it inside, it will most likely die. You don’t have to start with a large container if the plant is small when you get it. But be prepared to pot it up as needed until you have a plant that is growing in a container that’s 14” in diameter and at least 12” deep (about 6-7 gallons). Rosemary roots can grow to be 12-24” deep. In the spring I will transplant this rosemary tree from its 1-gallon size container into a larger pot.
  2. Place rosemary close to a sunny window, preferably one that’s badly insulated. The cool air by such a window is more humid than the rest of the house. Mine is on the floor next to a sliding glass door that leads to our deck.
  3. Most importantly, do not over-water it. Rosemary tricks us because when we see its leaves dying back and turning brown, we think we should water it more. But this can easily lead to root rot because rosemary is one of those herbs that thrives in dry well-drained soil. Don’t water it when the plant looks dry; water it when the soil is all dry. At that point I take mine to the sink and give it a thorough watering. Then I leave it there until it’s fully drained. After I return it to its saucer, I don’t water it again until the soil has dried.

With these tips, you’ll be able to enjoy rosemary all winter long even if you don’t live in a rosemary friendly climate.

For you there’s rosemary and rue; these keep seeming and savour all the winter long

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A WINTER’S TALE
Watering Rosemary Tree

2020 Update

Well, we’ve made it to the end of 2020. Happy New Year! I hope your holiday celebrations have been joyful and refreshing despite probably being smaller this year. At least many of us could meet virtually through video conference calls with our friends and family.

It’s been quite a year, and I have much to be thankful for. This is, for one thing, the year that I finally got this website up and running. While 2020 was certainly a difficult year in many ways, it was a great year for gardening. As many folks had to stay home and some had more time on their hands, they worked on improving their home environment, both inside and outside. And empty store shelves inspired many more to start their first vegetable gardens or to increase their already existing edible crops. I certainly hope this trend continues and will do all that I can to help all these fellow gardeners.

Despite the worldwide pandemic, 2020 was a good year for me and my family. Here is how I summarized it in the update we sent out with our Christmas cards:

It’s been an exciting year of many transitions. In the beginning of the year Stan and Debbie traveled to Taiwan and the Philippines, and thankfully we stayed one step ahead of the coronavirus. (That’s the China Sea behind us in the upper left photo.) In the spring we enjoyed having both boys at home with us as our state went into lockdown. In the summer restrictions were loosened enough for Roscoe and Emily to adapt their plans and still have a beautiful wedding on July 18th. They’re living in Oak Forest, IL. Roscoe is the Pastoral Assistant at Hickory Creek Church in Frankfort, and Emily teaches third grade math in Manhattan, IL. In the fall, Silas returned to Cedarville University, where he gave his senior trumpet recital on Oct. 25th. And now Stan has accepted a buyout package from Ford and is retiring from the insurance business, effective Dec. 31st. Big changes ahead!

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7-8

2020 has indeed been a “year of drought”! Yet it has been a fruitful year, and we thank the Lord for His never-ending grace and mercy. Whatever comes in the year ahead, may we all be like that tree, growing more deeply rooted in the Word of God (Psalm 1:1-3).

The psalm referenced here gives the key, I believe, to being a fruitful tree even in a year of drought: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”

If we draw our strength from the Bible, like the tree gets its nourishment from a fertile stream bed, we can survive troubled times and even flourish spiritually.

Here’s My New Blog

My Blog

This is it! I’ve been talking about launching a new blog for several years. And now, at the beginning of 2021, I’ve made this new website public: thegardenerwife.com.

My posts here are going to be organized around the same three themes that run throughout my newsletters:

  • GROW — practical gardening tips
  • EAT — garden-to-table eating
  • ENJOY — garden style living

Plus—because I want to plant spiritual seeds as well as literal seeds—I’ve added a fourth theme to my blog, for posts about the Bible and faith:

  • PRAY — growing spiritually

Click on GROW, EAT, ENJOY, or PRAY above to see my posts related to that topic.

My Newsletter

I’ve been writing an email newsletter since June 2018 and now have several hundred subscribers. If you’d like to join them, you can sign up for The Gardener Wife newsletter right here.  It’s not just about gardening—it’s about garden-style living! You’ll still get practical tips for growing; plus, with my garden-to-table eating recipes and advice, you’ll learn how to use what you grow (or what someone else has grown). 

What people are saying—

Excellent! Well written, informative, fun!!

… you’re right on. Keep it coming.

April Wong Loi Sing

Lots of good, no – EXCELLENT info!

Donna Hirsch

Wow! What a great newsletter. You are soooo very thorough in your writing. I love it.

Diane B.

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What else do I do—

My Social Media

I’ve also been posting on social media. Here’s where to find me, @thegardenerwife:

  • on Instagram – for lots of photos
  • on Facebook – for more details and information + garden-related events and news
  • and even on YouTube – for occasional videos

My Public Speaking

Giving a Gardening Presentation

Plus, I give presentations on both gardening and faith topics.

Need a speaker for your club, library, or other group?
Email Debbie@thegardenerwife for information on my topics and presentations.

The Gardener Wife

My Goal

Other services that I provide are listed on my Work with Me page. I’m doing all this because

I want to help you to GROW SOMETHING, something beautiful–even better, something to eat!

Thank you for stopping by and catching up on what I’m doing!

Working on The Gardener Wife Newsletter

Finding Tomato Tastings

Going to a tomato tasting is a fun way to enjoy others’ gardens as well as your own. When I couldn’t find any after first reading about tomato tastings years ago, I held my own. I invited others to bring tomatoes, printed voters’ ballots and winners’ certificates, and made a party out of it. This year I combined it with my first ever open garden day.

Tomato tastings are easier to find now. Try an internet search to see if there are any in your area. Keep your eyes and ears open for signs and announcements when you are at farmers markets and county fairs. Check your local newspaper. While reading the Chicago Tribune’s food section a few weeks ago, I found a tomato tasting at Green City Market that was held just a few days before my own.

If you’re not a tomato fan, you could look for other tastings. On the day that I was at the Green City Market, one of the vendors was doing a plum tasting. I’ve done a tasting with different barbecue sauces I had canned. Tastings are fun, and they can help you decide what to grow, buy, or make in the future.

See my next post for how to hold your own tomato tasting.

Open Garden Day + Tomato Tasting Contest

Photo by Laurie Fanelli for The Homer Horizon

My big event last Saturday, the Open Garden Day + Tomato Tasting Contest, was fantastic! I had a blast preparing for it and then meeting and greeting visitors throughout the day. THANK YOU to each of you who came!

I’m grateful for the publicity I got, too. Right before the event, the Ferry-Morse Seed Company shared my post showing a large Garden Leader Monster tomato grown from one of their seeds. My local paper, The Homer Horizon, featured me on their cover and ran a story about the event. WELCOME to each of you who recently subscribed to my newsletter as a result of that event!

Speaking of results, here are the results of The Gardener Wife Tomato Tasting Contest 2018 (photos by Patt Bailey):

BEST TASTING TOMATO OVER-ALL
#6 Sun Gold from Iron Creek Farm of LaPorte, IN

Best Tasting Cherry Tomato
#6 Sun Gold from Iron Creek Farm of LaPorte, IN

Best Tasting Full-Size Tomato
#13 Hungarian Heart

Best Tasting Non-Red Tomato
#5 Dark Cherry

Apparently not everyone who voted for Sun Gold put it in the Non-Red category. Yellow Pear cherry tomatoes (#7) received the next highest number of votes. It’s too bad that this tasting did not include the top winner from previous tastings I’ve had, Super Sweet 100s. Sadly, I did not have enough ripe ones ready on the day of the tasting.

Simple Seasonings

Now that folks are harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers in my area, I’m going to tell you my favorite seasonings for eating them fresh.
Cucumbers — Halve them lengthwise and sprinkle them with salt-free lemon pepper. This is exactly what I did on one of our Shakespeare picnics (shown above).
Tomatoes — Cut them in wedges and sprinkle a little fleur de sel. Not just any sea salt—it has to be fleur de sel. Trust me. Fleur de sel is collected from the salt floating on the surface of the seawater, and it has a sparkling pure taste. It’s the secret ingredient that takes my salsa, bruschetta, and caprese salad to the next level. I get it at Sur La Table or Williams-Sonoma. A little 4-ounce container lasts a long time.
Cherry tomatoes — Just wash them and set them out in a bowl. We eat them like candy. My favorites are Super Sweet 100s and Sweet Millions. Mmmm—sweet summer candy!

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