December is Time to Think About Next Years Seeds

Bob Bauer

December 14, 2016 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

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December 14, 2016

I checked my seed packets to see what I'll need to get for the January indoor planting, and realized that we've had such a mild winter that my garden is still full of cole crops. One of the first things you learn about gardening is the importance of crop rotation, and you will try to follow it, and be destined to failure. I never have enough room to rotate effectively nor do I think it's required in small backyard gardens. You can plant the same area again and again if the soil is different each time..

Adding compost and different types of mulch makes your soil continuously changing as the organic matter decomposes and trickles down. I've had no problems yet, but I'm a mulchaholic..

December 16, 2016

Before you plant your January six packs they need to be sanitized. Damping off disease will kill the sprouts if you don't. Apparently the microorganisms that cause it are kept under control by the other soil critters when the plants are in the ground, but run amuck when in sterile planting mix. Dipping the containers in a mild bleach solution will kill them. I use about a glug of bleach per gallon of water..

I'm sure you can get a more accurate formula on the internet but my gardening knowledge comes from before the internet. Yeah, we scratched our heads a lot and called everything magic but we had fun anyway. The dinosaurs were pretty much gone and the planet was heating up so good times..

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