Winter Digest (Carport-frame greenhouse design, Potatoes, Celery, and Beets & Carrots for Seed - and more)

This digest includes many posts that gardeners may find relevant for this time of year (January, zone 7B, northern hemisphere, Willamette Valley, Oregon). Enjoy! (Carport-frame greenhouse design, Potatoes, Celery, and Beets & Carrots for Seed - and more)

Here is our newest post. It outlines a simple way to grow carrot or beet seed from a root harvested in autumn and then re-planted at this time of year. Note: this only works with open-pollinated/non-hybrid carrots and beets. The amazing thing is that one seed/one carrot or beet can yield thousands and thousands of seeds. Nature's economy! Re-planting Carrots or Beets for Seed 

We had such good results from this experiment the past two years that we've already started some seeds this year. Every year is different but we hope to have bounteous, early crops to show for our efforts again this spring. Starting Seedlings Directly in Greenhouse Raised Beds

It's very gratifying to grow your own celery and not very difficult. We've discovered that celery plants can be cut back to the crown and re-grown, yielding twice as much food from this tasty and nutritious plant. (Despite its low-calorie content, celery provides several micronutrients. It contains potassium, folate, choline, vitamin A, and vitamin K. Celery also offers some natural sodium and fluoride - LINK). Here is a post with step-by-step instructions to grow your own. How to Grow Your Own Celery  

Our most popular posts pertain to growing potatoes. (As of this writing, their combined totals are over of 262,000!) Now is a good time begin preparing sprouted potatoes for planting (before the sprouts get too long and gangly) and/or to begin looking for small, chicken-egg size potatoes that are showing early signs of sprouting where ever you buy produce. Note: only use organically-grown potatoes for 'seed' as commercially-grown potatoes are often treated with a sprout retardant to give them a longer shelf-life.

Sprouting potatoes? What to do. 

Do I Need to Buy Seed Potatoes or Can I Just Grow Potatoes from the Grocery Store?  

Can I Speed Up Potato Sprouting? 

"When should I plant my potatoes" and "what if they don't have any sprouts yet"? 

Digging potatoes is one of the funnest garden tasks!

Here is another classic post (with close to 30,000 views) with step-by-step instructions for turning a metal, carport frame into a functional greenhouse/grow-tunnel. You can start a lot of plants and grow a lot of food in a greenhouse this size! And it's not that expensive to make. Carport-Frame Greenhouse Design

Kaitlyn filling pots with soil with the carport greenhouse behind.

We built raised beds along the edges of this greenhouse for three-season growing directly in the ground. In late winter/early spring we set up slatted tables on saw-horses to grow out 'starts'.

This will be the seventh season we've grown all our starts with soil we made ourselves and it looks like it will be another great year! Growing plants without a lot of concentrated soil amendments/fertilizers or animal by-products means they're slower to grow but they seem to be more resistant to pests and diseases. They are also more nutrient-dense since they don't have as much water-weight. Here's a previously written post that explains how we create our own soil (with a little help from the worms and micro-organisms in our greenhouse paths!) Making Your Own "Veganic" Potting Soil in Your Greenhouse Paths - Using Worms

Another, shorter post on how we create our own potting mix, compost and garden-soil in our greenhouse paths: How we grow...Veganic Community-based gardening  

And last but not least, if you need a dose of inspiration to encourage you to be generous in your sharing, here is an excellent presentation on the topic: Giftivism: Another Name for 'Sharing' - 'Reclaiming the priceless'