Still Gardening In January!

Gardening has always been my passion. I just love getting close to the earth and seeing God’s beautiful creation at work. In my early adult life I had big conventional gardens, with plants in rows with walk rows in-between. This type of gardening was a lot of work; especially keeping it weeded and watered. From there I graduated to raised bed gardens – this is where you raise the ground level with blocks or boarded sides to define the garden bed. These raised beds usually measured 4’ x 12’, and were a lot of fun because you could grow more vegetables in less space and there was practically no weeding and watering was easy. When we moved to Florida, into a home with very little open ground and the little we had we covered with patio stones – how was I going to be able to continue gardening which was still my passion? Then for Christmas a few years ago my son Paul gave me some containers designed to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers in an urban setting. These containers are called Earth Boxes or Grow Boxes and measure about 29 inches long, 14 inches deep, and 11 inches high. There is no digging, weeding, or guesswork. Just add planting mix, seeds or seedlings, and water. And they have a water reservoir so daily watering is not necessary. This winter I have a dozen of these grow boxes stretched along the back of my patio (that's my garden in the photo above) and we are still harvesting tomatoes, red peppers, radishes, egg plants, string beans (from a late planting), collards, and all kinds of herbs. Rhonda can go out the kitchen door directly onto the patio and harvest herbs for her various recipes, on the spot. As of January 5, 2015 we are still eating from our Earth Box garden – though we often get a light frost sometime during January that I can sometimes cover to save the plants. By the end of February, the weather is warming and we usually can start planting our spring garden. I’m looking forward to a great garden in 2015! On Sunday it was 82 degrees here in St. Augustine, Florida and I noticed driving to church that the leaves are already starting to bud – a harbinger of things to come. I realize that many of our readers are living in a colder climate and that winter gardening is not a possibility, but spring is coming and many of you, if you want to, can have a garden. If you have room for some raised beds, or even room for a few containers, why not plan on having a garden in 2015? It’s not too early to start planning!