The Art Of Gardening And Clearing Snow
There is little that can be done in the northern garden during the month of January. Therefore, it’s a good time to have a vacation from even thinking “garden.” But, on the other hand, it will probably turn out to be a bus driver’s holiday anyway, and you’ll spend it reading garden catalogs, visiting plant websites like plant-care.com, making lists and plans and maybe some New Year’s resolutions about how good this year’s garden is going to be.
Studying catalogs is a good January pastime but in making your selections give plenty of consideration to the old tried and true varieties as well. Many of the newer ones are pretty but they are so new the results aren’t always too dependable. Try some new varieties but for standby crops include the old.
A Hotbed is a big help if you don’t have a greenhouse - or if the greenhouse is not large enough. With such a frame you can sow seed as early as March that could not be sown outdoors until six weeks later. It used to be (100 years ago) that hotbeds were heated with manure and that, in itself, presented a problem but now it can be done electrically and the flick of a switch eliminates a whole messy job. Installation is not difficult. hotbed kits containing electric cables with thermostats and complete instructions may be purchased from most seed stores.
After a heavy snow clear the snow off the frames to permit light to reach the plants. Then shake it off the evergreens to prevent their branches being broken or spread. Don’t pull the branches down or try to remove any that is already frozen to the branches. Use a wooden lawn rake or a long bamboo pole and shake the branches from beneath. Also, help the snow to slide off greenhouse roofs by raising the temperature inside five to 10 degrees.
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