Gardening started off with a BANG in our back yard at the beginning of 2021. Several of the neighbors produced awesome fireworks displays on New Year’s Eve that we were able to view from our back yard garden.
Fiery marigolds and zinnias that we had planted in the fall were still exploding with blossoms into the new year.
Even our Christmas cacti and orchids got in on the fun, producing vibrant purple, magenta and red blossoms.
The year 2020 was a challenge on many levels, including the challenge to become more food self-sufficient. You can learn from many of our past gardening posts how to start a new garden as well as overcome the challenges many new gardeners might face.
In our first complete year of sub-tropical gardening, we grew new foods, learned how and when to grow our Midwestern favorites, and started new gardening practices such as harvesting rainwater, using shade cloth and staking tomatoes.
I’m already looking ahead to early spring even as we continue to harvest from our fall/winter garden.
Here’s how we started off 2021…
Journal Entries
Friday, January 1st – New Year’s Traditions
Just like last year, I continued my New Year’s Day tradition of planting tomato and pepper seeds. I planted the seeds in a tray on a heat mat and put them under a grow light. In four days, the cherry tomatoes were the first to peek out and say hello to the new year.
This year I started:
Tomatoes: Cherry, Homestead, Able Lincoln, Cherokee Purple
Peppers: Jalapenos and California Wonder
Saturday, January 2nd – Winter Coleslaw
Today I picked one small head of cabbage and made enough coleslaw for two meals. I also planted 15 cabbage seedlings of the same variety in several places in the garden. I’m practicing succession planting this year, to keep continual fresh produce coming into the kitchen.
Sunday, January 3rd – Roots and Shoots
I picked 5 small rutabagas and one last radish. They were roasted for dinner with the Japanese sweet potatoes that we had harvested a few months ago. Volunteer cherry tomatoes are ripening and new marigolds are coming up where I had tossed some seeds.
The potatoes are shooting up and are about 8 – 10 inches tall now. They are slowly crowding out the lettuce that is planted around them, but there are still plenty of greens to make a salad every 4-5 days.
Saturday, January 9th – Cool garden work.
This morning Mike cold-smoked some cheese on the grill while I worked in the garden. The high temperature for the day was 68 degrees. I pulled weeds and dying plants, trimmed the tomatoes, then fertilized the cabbages and potatoes. We’ve had a dry spell, so everything got watered too.
Friday, January 22nd – Seedlings are up!
The pepper and tomato seedlings are about 90 percent up. Most of them were seeds left over from last year’s purchases, except the jalapeno pepper seeds which I had saved from the peppers I’d grown. All things considered, that’s a successful germination rate.
We’ve enjoyed a lot of good food from the garden this past season. Here’s a link to how started we started our first fall garden:
Saturday, January 23rd – Finally time for Sauerkraut!
I have been waiting for this day for months! I finally made a small-batch of sauerkraut for the first time in about 24 years!
The recipe I used was from a fermenting kit I bought from HOSS Tools. It is an identical process to the traditional way I’ve made sauerkraut except it makes a small-batch size of one quart instead of the 2 gallon crock I previously used. This is a more practical size for a household of two people!
Cutting a cabbage plant. 
Crushing shredded cabbage. 
First jar of sauerkraut.
Here’s a link to my post about how to ferment sauerkraut.
Monday, January 25th – White Flies
Pest season is approaching. I found white flies in the potato leaves. They haven’t done much damage yet, but I’m considering using an insecticidal soap if they get much worse. I might do nothing either since the lettuce is growing between the potatoes. I sure could use some lady bugs right now!
Saturday, January 30th – Cabbage and Tomato Harvesting
Today was a busy gardening day. Mike cut the lawn for the first time in weeks and cleaned up the front flower beds.
I weeded the garden and did some trimming on the tomato plants.
There were more ripe tomatoes to pick. They are ripening fast now. I’m saving them in the freezer to can later as stewed tomatoes.
I made a second jar of sauerkraut today, using two more ripe heads of cabbage. I had just enough cabbage left over to make some coleslaw for supper.
Looking Ahead
February promises to be another busy month.
We’ll be turning under the cover crop of mustard and planting the tomatoes and peppers after the threat of cold weather and frost has passed. Our last average frost date is February 15th. You can find your specific gardening zone and frost dates at Frostdate.com
Soon it will be time to trim the crepe myrtles and other trees and shrubs. The lawn should start steadily growing again, and we’ll be able to create a good balance of nitrogen and carbon in the compost pile.
In a few weeks I’ll be able to taste the sauerkraut I’ve made and we’ll enjoy it with several meals.
We have a lot of plans for planting and harvesting the next few months, more canning and freezing, and Mike will be building some new things to help with our gardening and other homesteading projects. Plus, I just bought a food dryer to add to our food preservation options.
What are you planning for spring? How have you gardened over the winter? I’d enjoy hearing how you garden in the fall and winter. Please leave a comment below, on my Instagram feed, or send me an email.
Thanks for joining us on our gardening journey.
Happy gardening!
Alisa