Garden Journal Update for Mid-January - by Sunscape

It's hard to believe sometimes how the temperatures can fluctuate over 30°F. in just two day's time. This past week after having two back-to-back snowstorms and a power outage, we had a thunderstorm and two days of rain. Over 6" of snow disappeared in two days.

We had a warm front come through western, N.Y. which brought 55°F one day and 62°F. the following day. I took a walk around the yard to check to see how any plants were doing. I couldn't believe it when I saw that the garlic I planted back in November had begun sprouting.

The entire row had begun to grow, apparently it thought it was springtime with the January thaw we were having.

I had left a Rosemary plant in the raised bed, and that too looked like it was surviving our winter so far. We have had a good amount of snow every week to keep all the plants undercover, maybe that is why it still looks good.

Also, I had left some of the young beet plants in the garden and I can see new growth coming on them, as well as some of the Swiss Chard.

I was concerned about the strawberry plants in the tower garden setup. I had put them into the greenhouse to winter over and I had watered them twice since fall. This is what they look like right now, many went dormant, but a few are still thriving. If they continue to do well, I'm thinking I will have some early strawberries by spring.

The weather was so nice that Mika and I enjoyed spending some time on the porch. She was so excited to spend time with me like we do all summer long.

The next day, we got a light dusting of snow but most of it melted as fast as it came down.

This week I am going to start planting onion seeds to give them plenty of time to grow a little bulb before planting them out in March. It was so nice to get outside and take a few photos for a January Journal Update. I hope your gardens are doing well to. Many of you are probably already harvesting from different parts of the world. Happy Gardening everyone!