Gardeners anticipate spring planting time with glee. They look to their pale hands and clean nails with a a sense of nostaglia for last year's sun and dirt. They dream and plan for next summers garden. But some people never wait. They never feel a seasonal void. Sheri Ann Richardson, co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Year Round Gardening, wants everyone to know the joy year- round gardening brings. Her book helps everyone, no matter the hardiness zone, to garden year round. It doesn’t matter if you have a heated or unheated greenhouse, garden indoors, use frost covers or cold frames; you can grow many varieties of fresh produce.
In her Indiana garden, she's had a successfull year round garden, growing lettuce, peas, radish, turnip, carrots, to name a few. In her zone 6 garden, she's figured a way to plant tomatoes as early as April.
She spoke with me recently about The Complete Idiot's Guide To Year-Round Gardening
ALJ How did you come to write about Year-Round Gardening?
SAR That was interesting. A friend was offered to co-author the book. He called me to offer me the opportunity because he knew I had been experimenting here in Indiana with year-round gardening. I accepted and the rest, as they say, is history!
ALJ How does year-round gardening fit into a green living lifestlye?
SAR Many people living the green lifestyle choose to eat local. There is no way to eat closer to home than if you are eating from your own backyard! Fresh produce travels for miles to reach many parts of the country in the winter. The nutrients have began to fade by the time the produce reaches your local supermarket. This is not the case with produce you pick from your own yard.
Growing your own produce organically, year-round lessens your dependency on petrolium products - from gas to transport what you eat to fertilizer or pesticides used in many large commercial farm operations.
ALJ Although I do save money with my summer garden, I haven't done too much with indoor gardening. Mostly seed starting and some lettuce. I do wonder if can you save money with indoor gardening.
SAR Yes! Think about the cost of organic or even conventional produce out of season. A packet of seeds costs so little and produces so much food. A packet of seeds could be shared with several people making the cost even less. If the seeds are properly stored, they will last several growing seasons.
If you are lucky enough to have a sunny window, you may not need grow lights.
ALJ I imagine many people think they can not garden because they don't have a big sunny yard. Can an apartment or condo dweller become a year-round gardener?
SAR Yes. Many apartments or condo's have balconies or patios. It is possible, if you insulate the pot, to grow year-round crops in pots - or even edge your patio with lettuce for the winter! Make sure you ask before you dig if the cold frame you plan to use is against the rules where you live.
If you can't grow outside where you live, move your garden indoors! It is possible!
ALJ What else would you like our readers to know?
SAR The Complete Idiot's Guide to Year-Round Gardening discusses more than just early season gardening techniques. It covers root cellars, indoor gardening, greenhouse gardening and of course, winter gardening.
This book should be on the bookshelf of every gardener, every person who wants to live greener and everyone who is striving for self-sufficiency!
I am doing this here in Indiana, zone 5/6 and loving it! There is nothing like picking fresh lettuce to eat for Christmas dinner!
Thank you, Sheri Ann
Sheri Ann Richerson's year-round garden in Indiana
Amy Lou Jenkins is the Author of .jpg)
Every Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting
"If you combined the lyricism of Annie Dillard, the vision of Aldo Leopold, and the gentle but tough-minded optimism of Frank McCourt, you might come close to Amy Lou Jenkins,...I, for one, would follow her anywhere."—Tom Bissell author of The Father of All Things
Jenkins' polished literary style makes it, sentence by sentence, a joy to read." - Phillip Lopate, Author of Waterfront 
Comments