Sowing seeds: Winter gives time to plot garden

MOSES LAKE — It’s a sad fact unless the garden is somewhere like Australia or Argentina, January is not a gardening month. But it’s not to say there’s nothing for a gardener to do.

Gardener and former nursery owner Phyllis PuFahl said gardeners who want to start certain kinds of vegetables should be busy now.

“If you want to start seeds, peppers and tomatoes need to be started now, if you’ve got a light system. Some seeds need to be started really early, and that’s peppers. Peppers and tomatoes, for sure, should’ve been started already,” PuFahl said.

“Peppers are so slow. Tomatoes start a little bit faster, but peppers, sweet peppers or green peppers, take forever,” she said.

Flower gardeners who want a thriving patch of petunias can start those seeds now, she said. Otherwise, gardeners can do little chores like sharpening tools.

“Right now, you’re waiting,” PuFahl said.

Daryl Cole of Emerald Desert Nursery near Quincy said January also is about getting ready.

“For January, a lot of people will be doing a lot of planning,” Cole said.

At Emerald Desert, the crew leaves the perennials unpruned until late January and early February, since the foliage provides protection for the plants and food for overwintering birds. But spring is coming, even if it seems far away, and it’s time to start getting rid of last year’s foliage before plants come out of dormancy, Cole said.

Some vegetables can survive pretty cold conditions, PuFahl said.

“Sprinkle spinach seed on top of the snow. Cover them up with a little bit of hay or something, if you’ve got something like that. Spinach will germinate first thing in the spring. It seems weird, but works well,” she said.

But mostly January is about planning. Even experienced gardeners don’t just wing it, and people who are new to gardening will find more success with a little planning.

Some flowers, vegetables and fruits grow tall, others spread out. Cole said gardeners need to know how much room each plant needs before placing their seed order or buying plants. PuFahl suggested “square foot gardening.”

“What I do is take it (the garden plot) and break it into square feet,” she said.

A tomato plant takes about a square foot, so one tomato plant will take up one square foot of the layout.

“Carrots, you can do nine (plants) per square foot, Onions, they can take probably six (per square foot). In one garden plot you can grow a lot just by breaking it up into one foot squares,” she said.

“Square foot gardening is fun. And your plots look really cool, because everything is different. It’s kind of a patchwork quilt of plants. And you’re able to replant,” PuFahl added.

“Get some seed catalogs and start looking at what varieties you want to plant,” she said.

Cole said gardeners also need to think about summer, in particular the summer sun. Some plants don’t like the summer sun.

“You’re going to want completely different plants for sunny areas and shady areas,” Cole said.

Gardeners also need to know how well the plants they’ve chosen survive cold temperatures, she said.