Do you plant a fall garden? If you haven’t, it is not too late to get those seeds and plant starts in the ground. Here in Washington, the weather is totally mild enough to have a fall/winter garden with pretty minimal effort. With just a tad more effort, fall/winter gardening can be done pretty much in any region, though.
I really am hoping to harvest some fresh lettuce {and kale for The Girl} for Christmas dinner this year, so, even in the absence of garden space {for now anyway}, I decided to plant a mini winter garden in some containers out along the house. There are a couple of advantages to this anyway, the containers will actually keep the soil warmer AND placing them near the house will offer the plants some protection.
The key to a successful fall/winter garden start with choosing the right kind of plants. Cold hardy produce, like spinach, Swiss chard, parsnips, kale, arugula, carrots, cold hardy herbs, etc. are your best choices.
They can stand the cooler temperatures with just a little TLC. Especially when your plants are still seedlings, you will want to use a row cover or hoop house to cover them on nights where a light or hard freeze is in the forecast. If your days are still warming up nicely, make sure to take the cover off during the day, or the plants will go through temperature extremes and get angry at you.
Fall/winter gardening is a much, much slower process than spring and summer gardening. Your plants, even if they are cold hardy, will grow slower. That is totally normal. You won’t need to water as frequently as you would during spring and summer gardening, because the soil will take much longer to dry out in between waterings. Also, try to water mid-morning, if possible, that way your soil will have plenty of time to absorb the moisture without going into immediately freezing overnight temperatures {that will obviously be increasingly harder to do as the weather stays cold during the days too}.
Nothing beats garden fresh veggies–and it always blows Thanksgiving and Christmas guests’ minds when I have a freshly picked salad on the dinner table. If only they knew how little effort it really took. What do you like to grow in your fall/winter garden?
~Mavis
This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.
Quote of the Day “Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” E. B. White
REI Garage Deal of the Day
You Don’t Need a Receipt: I have plenty of things to try to keep track of in my life. Not having to worry about a receipt means that’s one less thing I could potentially misplace! All I need is my Costco card and they can look up pretty much anything I’ve purchased at Costco in the history of ever, so no receipt is required for a return since it’s already in their system. Sweet!
You Can Return Anything: You know that tree you planted 2 years ago that just died? They’ll take it back. That opened package of used underwear? {gag} They’ll take it back. A half eaten loaf of bread. Yep. You can return that. An empty bottle of wine that gave you a headache? Please don’t be that person, but if you are, they will seriously let you return that, too {in certain states}. While they WILL take anything back {except diamonds and electronics after 90 days}, I would encourage you not to be unethical about it. Don’t use their return policy as a rental program and grab a paddle board you know you are only using for your beach vacation before returning it. It might be allowed, but it kind of makes you a jerk. So let’s not be jerks, let’s be nice Costco members who are super grateful for this awesome return policy!
You Can Snack While You Return: Okay, so this really has nothing to do with their actual return policy, but I love that if I have a return to make and my stomach is grumbling, I can hop in and grab a sausage on a toothpick or a cracker smeared with cheese spread and then be on my way! Or if it’s a full lunch I need, then $1.50 later and I’ve got my hot dog and soda in hand and lunch is taken care of!
You Don’t Need the Original Packaging: This one I love. It’s right up there with keeping track of receipts. Chances are if I opened something, the packaging is long gone. No worries! You don’t need the original packaging or even the product manual in order to make a return. You just need all the parts and accessories that came with it and you’ll get a full refund.
You Can Try a New Product Worry-Free: Let’s say you see an awesome new bag of trail mix or popcorn or crackers or whatever that you think your kids will love. It’s a Costco-sized bag and sadly, there’s not a sample table out front so you can give it a try. You are 99% sure your family will gobble it up, so you buy it because on the off chance they don’t love it, you can simply bring the bag back, no questions asked. While I rarely end up hating any new food products I try from Costco, there have been a few times I would have been stuck with an $18 mega bag of something my family didn’t love if Costco ‘s return policy wasn’t so great.
That Return Line Moves Crazy Fast: I’m not sure how they do it, but in every Costco I’ve ever been to, they somehow manage to employ world’s fastest cashiers and employees. Seriously. You want a quick slice of pizza but the line is 10 people deep, just blink and you’re at the front of the line. The return line is the same. Sometimes I’ll get there and groan because the return line is so long, but within minutes, I’m first in line. They are crazy efficient and don’t waste my time. That’s another Costco return policy perk!
Quote of the Day “What matters most is how well you walk through fire.” Charles Bukowski
